Marsaleigh: A New Direction
Session 13
Operation: Stealing Private Letter
The party leaves the office to discuss their options and Shikkari puts his disguise back on. As they head out, Johann feels a tug at his consciousness; his patron is telling him to go to one of the clerk’s desks in the city hall to obtain a relatively inconspicuous envelope. The clerk themself seems to be concerned with communications and will soon open that particular envelope that the patron wants. Johann understands that his window of opportunity to get the letter for his patron is fleeting. He whispers to Shikkari, requesting his assistance with this task. He informs him that there is something he needs inside the clerk’s desk, but does not divulge the specifics. Shikkari is very suspicious of this request and denies. Johann instead asks Zihi, a much less “Lawful Good” kind of person. He tells her the same thing. Zihi is totally down to help. Johann wishes to keep everything non-violent, not wanting a repeat of the meeting in Mulderfield. Shikkari butts back into the conversation, asking what is actually going on. Zihi telepathically suggests to Johann to ask the clerk for help finding a bathroom. He agrees and approaches the clerk, feigning a very bad stomach-ache. The clerk jumps to her feet and guides Johann to the bathroom, dry-heaving the whole way while telepathically describing the seal on the envelope to Zihi. She stealthily goes to the desk to retrieve the letter from the desk, grabs it, and hides it under her cloak. She returns to the party while Johann casts prestidigitation to emit a horrible odor and vomiting sounds in the bathroom. He exits the bathroom and announces, “That was the last time I ever eat raw rat meat”.
Johann rendezvous with the rest of the party outside the capitol of Marsaleigh. The environment is still tense, as per the rising tensions with the recent rumors that have been circulating. Shikkari picks Johann up by the scruff of his neck, like a cat, bringing him to his height, and asks “What did you do?” Johann explains that the fate of the world rested on him taking that envelope, but even with that explanation Johann seems like he isn’t sure what he’s saying. Shikkari puts him down. Shikkari then shifts the conversation to what their next move should be, in the grand scheme of things, but Ranpo suggests a more private place to discuss these things. Jamila temporarily leaves the party to go check on Cinnaby.
Contacting Obadach
The Flying Oats is a surprisingly empty tavern in a town as large as Marsaleigh, and where the party decides to talk about their plans. Johann requests the letter from Zihi, still being shady about why he wants it. Zihi watches carefully as Johann goes to open it. The dwarf running the establishment asks how she can assist. Shikkari requests a large room, to which the dwarf says they can use the “bottom floor” for 50 gold. Alternatively, Ranpo asks for four different rooms at the cost of four silver.
The party goes up to the rooms, but Johann invites the party to go with him to the notary. Shikkari asks if they can finally do some planning already. A noisy group of people enter the tavern downstairs. They pull out the Sending Stone and choose Shikkari to be the go-between for speaking with Obadach. The communication becomes streamlined between Obadach and Shikkari as they talk across space. He gives Obadach the rundown on their recent activities, as well as Trinregar’s propositions for taking down Verhen. Shikkari asks for Obadach’s input. Obadach is specifically interested in the Shepherd they slew. Shikkari utters the name “Misin” to Oba, which causes a small interference in the Sending Stone and causes Obadach to stammer. Ranpo, Johann, and Zihi all feel pain in their head when Shikkari says the name. Obadach tells Shikkari that names hold power, and that he must be careful to use titles rather than the personal names of great beings.
They also discuss a “revelation” that has informed people that a new, blasphemous god has been born, based on what they were told by their own deities. Everyone has been on high alert, according to Obadach. Shikkari is confused, and Oba concedes that the legends have never discussed how this could be possible. Oba wants to know how Shikkari knew the Shepherds name, and he forgets how, so he reconvenes with the party to remember how they did know. He gives a quick update to the party, then says that a “wise man” divulged it to them. Obadach says that there are legends of people who have witnessed all the events of the world without actually being involved. Without revealing too much, Shikkari tells Oba about how Edward has been a part of the party. He does not tell him about Edward being a literal walking talking skeleton, or the name that Volker gave him (Edward was Volker’s idea).
Shikkari inquires to Obadach’s opinion about the Verhen and Trinregar issue. Oba says that there are no “eternal allies” in Genshokura. Aiding another Daimyo is always a risk; helping other people may come back to hurt them. All decisions must be made with utmost care and evaluation. They end the conversation and Shikkari tells the party about everything.
Contents of the Letter
Johann pitches to the party, minus Shikkari since he was on the call, that they burn the letter; he explains why he needed it in the first place, because of his patron. They want to try to get the contents of the letter without opening it. He looks for charcoal and Ranpo looks for a trace of the seal on the envelope. He has a forgery kit. Shikkari is confused, so Johann explains; he plans to learn what the seal is and then burn the letter, but still not about the patron. Johann decides to actually inspect the seal on the letter; he recognizes that the seal belongs to the city of Kashab. Johann then burns the letter using an oil lamp in the room.
Ranpo gets very suspicious about Johann and demands what that seal was and who it was from. Johann relents and tells them it was from Kashab. He then finally tells Shikkari what the heck was actually going on with the letter and what his intentions were.
The party determines that Kashab may have been trying to contact Trinregar to get out from under the thumb of Roland and Yatsukawa. They decide that talking to Trinregar again may be the best course of action, both to ask questions and choose which between which options he suggested earlier (or to come up with a third). Ranpo proposes that they cut the middleman and investigate Kashab themselves, and maybe help clear out the monsters around the territories to increase standing. The party re-evaluates what they know about Lord Roland; Johann recalls that Roland is best described as a zealot, based on knowledge he accrued in his past travels. He was the one that propelled his family’s territory and name to greatness. He is ambitious and powerful (Roland, not Johann). Some people have unironically agreed that Roland is good as a daimyo, showing how infectious Roland’s zealotry has been.
The Gates
The party returns to Trinregar. They quickly get down to business. Ranpo brings forth information that they forgot to share before; they encountered strange monsters on the way to Marsaleigh from Mulderfield, then shows him Zihi’s hand-drawn pictures. Trinregar is confused by the drawings, then looks shocked to see them. Zihi and Shikkari feel as if Trinregar thinks that the monsters are a joke at first, but then he looks up at the party and says that those do not exist. He is very distraught by the implications of these monsters’ existence and requests an aide to bring him a resident archaeologist.
A middle-aged man enters the room and is quickly shown the monster drawings. Trinregar aks if any of them have been in a “gate” before, to which they are all confused. Trinregar and the archaeologist looks bleak; the fact that these monsters were encountered on the roads is incredibly bad. Johann reveals that one got away of the ones that they encountered, but the rest were killed. Trinregar says “May the twin gods guide us”. He then explains the what the “Gates” are. They look as if they were from ancient times, appearing in random locations, even inside cities. These gates generally contain their own worlds separate from the main realm, providing limitless wealth and knowledge to any who enter them. But there are also extremely vile monsters inside most of them. They don’t venture beyond the gates though. Johann responds with “Fuck.” The archaeologist doesn’t know where they actually originate from, other than that they come out of the ground when they appear. Sometimes the gates are only there fore a day; every gate is vastly different from the last. Trinregar does not reveal what they found in the gates. Shikkari asks if they ever found any writings in the gates, to which the archaeologist confirms. Shikkari grabs a piece of paper then from memory sketches the runes that had appeared on Edward. The archaeologist is flabbergasted and convinced that the party has actually been inside a gate. The party denies, and the archaeologist says that these runes have only ever been seen inside a gate, never once appearing in the outside world. Shikkari explains that these runes were seen on objects sacred to his people. Trinregar is uninterested in saving Shikkari’s people at the expense of his own, even for study, so Shikari proposes that the party goes to exterminate the monsters in the territory in question. Trinregar tells them to take the archaeologist, Arthen, to the supposed gate; they must not divulge this mission to anyone, nor the possibility of an open gate in his territory. He asks that the party signs a contract notarized by an agent of the Hooded. “No amount of good-will will ever make me forfeit reasonable caution”.