Session 25: Solas, Tanyth 3rd

 The group settled for the night at the Hopeful Dawn headquarters. Kalim cooked a tasty soup, which was well-received by the group (as opposed to the spider goo). Armando spent some additional time with his mother. She told her a bit about her journey here, and how Kalim saved her life. She also told Armando that vampires and drow seem unaffected by the corruption, but she didn’t know much about their plans or about Ascal Olovalur and suggested they ask more questions to Halaema, as she spent some time in captivity with the vampires and drow.

Kalim told Sylvie everything the group has been through since he joined them. Sylvie worked on her concoctions for a while alongside Halaema.

Halaema had a conversation with Elenion, in which she revealed a few things:

-     That she is also unseelie, and had to leave Aerie when people started getting suspicious of her, and got transferred to the Seldarine, away from unprying eyes. Othorion always accepted her for who she is (he knows about her unseelieness).

-     She cast a memory spell on Elenion’s parents, so they wouldn’t remember Halaema, or that she left. It was a painful parting for Halaema, but she wanted to spare her sister from the same pain. Elenion’s mother never cared about Halaema’s unseelieness, and always treated her with a lot of love and care.

-     She revealed that there is a secret chamber in the crypt below “Celeste’s Rest” – the place where the Eladrin meditate during the winter (and where Elenion was born), and where Elenion’s mother’s tomb is. The secret passage to this chamber is sealed by blood magic, and can currently only be opened by Elenion.

-     Halaema knew Ascal for a long time in the council, and noticed something was “off” about him as he got transferred to the Seldarine. She never detected any magic on him that would allow him to change his shape, so that was very odd. But it would be explained if he is a creature that can do so naturally.

-     She doesn’t know where Ascal Olovalur is, though he has been on the move. He managed to get a powerful Orc sea captain as his ally, the name of the vessel is “The Sanguine Raider”. There are not many orcs that would ally themselves to really anyone outside of their own kin (who live mostly in Bhogur Ghaz), so this is very odd, and Ascal must have some powerful leverage or bargain with this Orc.

-     During her time in captivity, she noticed the vampires were desperate for an easy way to freely travel between realms. At first their efforts were concentrated on Aerie, because they are the ones controlling these portals, but their interest has recently shifted to the temple of Yemoja (although they’re continuously infiltrating Aerie). They do seem very frustrated at the moment, however. She doesn’t think they have been able to infiltrate it yet. Halaema knows little about the temple itself, much less how to enter it. As expected, very little information was shared between the “Pact of Life” groups and Aerie. However she knows that Yemoja and Yigdrasiil are known to be deities that were lovers, and it seems that their worshippers also seem to get along quite well, so maybe the druids of Yigdrasiil can help with getting into the temple.

-     Halaema has noticed not all drow are invested in the alliance with the vampires. Some seem hopeless, almost as if cornered, without a choice. Which is not surprising, given history…The ones to beware are the worshippers of Ganasis.

By the end of the night, Halaema completed enough of the Dragon blood solution to distribute amoung the Hopeful Dawn, which is currently 25 people strong. They pledged their alliance to the group, and will collaborate in any way they can to fight this crisis. Halaema also handed Kalim 4 extra vials of the solution, in case they come across additional vampires willing to take the cure.

Kalim offered to talk to the monks about this, and get them to join as well. Halaema still had reservations about this, as the monks had shown a zero tolerance towards vampires in the past.

Kalim left her with an additional 2 vials of red dragon blood and 2 vials of gold dragon blood, and succeeded to concoct a potion of giant strength (fire). 

The group decided to head out towards Ivtar in the morning. They also came up with a password to be used in future traps by the entrance to the Hopeful Dawn. Scabbers agreed to use the password “Mildred69”.