After the events of the previous night, a chunk of the Banzeel elite, led by Elbleem/Silvator, decided that peace with the West was a good thing and attacking Marakeel was a good thing, as long as the Cuthbert wasn't brought into Banzeel. They denied all knowledge of the giant cloud over Banzeel, denied the existence of the plague, and claimed to have no information regarding githyanki in the area. The Banzeelites also offered the support of the Wizards' Association in the march to and assault on Marakeel (specifically, trained battle mages, who would sign contracts using the Quill of Law, an artifact that does bad things to people who breach contracts signed with it).
The proposal included an agreement giving a faction of merchant mages (led by Elbleem/Silvator) control over the city's trade, particularly trade conducted by magical means, and a plan to found a Banzeel School of Magic, though the mage community was divided on the specifics: Some wanted it in Banzeel itself, while others wanted it in a more secluded area; and some wanted membership restricted to humans, while others (probably including the Silverton transplants) did not.
Here are some positions on the matter:
- The Insanity Temple is reacting more favorably than most people would have anticipated.
- The Death Temple is opposed to the truce, but a faction of them may be hoping to make this an opportunity to found a splinter temple in Banzeel.
- House Jeltha, unsurprisingly, favors its leader's proposals.
- House Baleel is willing to go along if their position in Banzeel improves as a result. They are opposed to Elbleem/Silvator's proposed trade cartel.
- Gorakheel doesn't like the School of Magic idea: "Business is better when identifies are rare."
- Silvana doesn't think shipping off malcontented mages is worth much as a sign of good faith. She suggested that the Westerners ask for 100kgp up front (in diamond dust, so it couldn't be extorted from the populace) to show that they're serious. (The money would also be useful if the dwarves' help were needed in breaching Marakeel's fabled walls.)
- Ganeth stated that any system of government based on a particular character class or profession makes him uneasy.
The party also learned that there had been several further strikes against the Death Temple after the party's foray, some supported by Banzeel mages, and that the astral worms had gone to the Insanity Temple for some reason.
As promised, the entire party was called in and interviewed one at a time, though by Omijarvis rather than Omimajish. He basically wanted to know why each person was involved in the war and what they hoped to see result from it. [I didn't really take notes on this, so feel free to correct or expand on anything here.]
- Rogroc's answer was essentially that he fought because fighting's what he does. Omijarvis didn't even bother recommending him for Truth seminars.
- Zenig, with a full day in the world under his belt, had no clue what any of this was about.
- Lorcan's player wasn't present, so we don't know what he'd have said.
- Gorakheel, to nobody's surprise, said that he wanted Marakeel out and Banzeel run by Banzeelites.
- Pepper said that he was happy as long as he got to run around, preferably in the air. He told Omijarvis that the Westerners should pay more attention to their horses; some of them were wiser than the humans seemed to appreciate.
- Frankel said that he was primarily involved because Silvana had brought the party in. When asked about the wisdom of horses, he said that wisdom varied among horses, just as it did among people.
- Beeel was happy enough to be opposing the evils of the Empire but had no particular thoughts about what should happen afterwards.
- Stealth answered almost every question with "Ask Silvana"; when asked what he wanted, he replied, "I want to leave now." He did.
- Ganeth turned the tables on Omijarvis by walking in and asking a bunch of questions. He learned that the Truth priests have found him very confusing because, despite having a Chaotic alignment and being the Red One, he's generally come across as reasonable, restrained, and perhaps one of the more "normal" members of the party. He also found out the Westerners themselves have no real conception of what the Nation of Good should actually be, except that it should somehow include non-Lawfuls and non-humans.
Ganeth related his theory about Asmodeus using the war to shake things up and wrest power away from the factions currently sitting on Marakeel's evil altars and power sources. His worst-case scenario was that the Westerners do just enough damage to loosen the current evil's hold on Marakeel's power without doing anything to the power sources themselves; the end result would then be one evil replacing another and a lot of people dead, which he didn't see as an improvement. So given that the war was happening, he wanted to see the job done as thoroughly as possible. He also argued that the West needed people with nontraditional perspectives (such as himself) to point out possibilities that they would otherwise miss; Omijarvis seemed to agree, noting that the Western command had recently decided to start considering such speculations during their planning sessions.
In talking about the chaos source, Ganeth mentioned in passing that his plan was to survive long enough to be able to decide for himself what the energy would be used for. Omijarvis was quite excited to hear this and thought that statement might help to allay some of his superiors' fears.
Finally, Ganeth gave Omijarvis the gate the githzerai had piled through the day before.
- Silvana took Omijarvis to task for the Westerners' (and particularly the Truth Temple's) complete idiocy with respect to public relations. After an adventuring party goes off on scary and almost insanely dangerous expeditions on one's behalf, her argument went, one should be appreciative, compliment them on the job they did (truthfully, of course), make them feel included, or at least say thank you when they get back. Omijarvis didn't get it, but he thought a banner might help, so said he'd commission one listing the party's deeds so they could rally around it if they ever lost morale.
Rogroc started training for fighter-7. Silvana arranged for Whitemoon to transfer 500xp each from herself and Stealth into Zenig, allowing him to start training for ranger-2. (Plant Dude will probably be cross.)
Elbleem/Silvator was too busy to continue Ganeth's training, so he subcontracted the job to a swamplands priest/mage named Kozin who'd been an independent adventurer for about seventy years. (She's called Kozin the Cranky, but not to her face. She was chosen because, while she's generally abrupt and unfriendly, she doesn't dislike demi-humans more than she dislikes everyone else.)
Before re-starting Ganeth's training, Kozin tried to barter with Silvana for some plant samples from the grey elven forest. When that failed, she bartered for Plant sphere spellbeads instead; she ended up getting Solonor's Guiding Arrow (a spell Silvana researched) in exchange for a Charm spell called Feeblebody that drops a victim's physical stats to 3. [Was there more to this trade?]
Kozin then took out some mud she'd been carrying and used it to build a little magical hut. After warning the party that anyone disturbing the place would end up diseased, she and Ganeth entered. The inside space (which was scryproof) seemed to open onto a swamp, and Ganeth thought he saw lizardmen in the distance. Kozin got some adventuring done in there while Ganeth was studying, though once in a while she'd pop out to tell Silvana about the latest disease symptoms Ganeth was developing.
After some negotiating, the Western command gritted their teeth and gave Ganeth four vials of ink, allowing him to scribe from Drakos' spellbooks and donate them to the West. They also arranged for him to copy passwall from Alpha, who'd arrived on the scene with his Cube of Law (an extradimensional dwelling) and support staff. (It's good to be the second most powerful mage in the West.)
A few days before Ganeth finished his training, Clynthia and Nytia dropped by the Western encampment to let the party know they'd be in the area for a while, keeping on eye on the cloud above Banzeel. They assured Silvana that the ki-rin believed operating the cloudship in the Banzeel area should be safe, and they brought Beeel an augury candle to use for meditating on difficult decisions.
The Wind Temple was considering re-establishing itself in the area. As part of this program, they asked Beeel to establish a monastery in a secluded area (though not immediately; this is more of a long-range plan). They also had a mission for the party in the Icelands, if they were interested: A strange crevice had opened up in the ice, and the area inside didn't contact enough Elemental Air for the Wind Temple to check it out themselves. The crevice was a tunnel to somewhere, and the inside of it was a moss forest (some sort of plant creature with a symbiotic intelligence), perhaps with other creatures living in it. Who better to send in than a party with plant experts?
Frankel asked the wind paladins about the snake in the bracelet, but they had no clue about it. Nytia thought there was something oddly familiar about Zenig, but she didn't know what.
After completeing his training, Ganeth teleported to the Hollerith Temple to pick up his own magical ink stash and deliver a diplomatic pouch. While there, he checked in with Kelmin, who wasn't happy to hear that G wasn't close to restarting the clan, though after a lot of discussion she started to warm to the idea of starting a more generalized adventuring guild sometime in the future (but I still wouldn't call her convinced).
Kelmin had heard a rumor that Streck was back and in hiding. She'd also heard that the Parnos Clan were in hiding after angering a group of demons that become especially strong at night (demiloths?); Azuriel, their leader, was thought to be on the southern continent. Meanwhile, the Shorin seemed to be everywhere, and groups of elves were gathering in the forests near Auramkil.
On the night of the new moon, shortly after Ganeth finished training, the party was visited by a half high elf in a dark hooded robe who'd come seeking the people who'd "so successfully attacked the Temple of Death." He'd spoken to various Westerners and eventually been directed to the party's shelter. He exuded a palpable aura of evil, but Pepper didn't sense danger. He called himself The Bridge and said he represented "Evil" and wanted to discuss common goals. He also mentioned that the Temple of Death was pissed off and taking steps to counter what they perceived as a threat, and he claimed to have taken steps to insure the party's survival.
- Bridge:
- "I've come to spend the night with you."
- Frankel:
- "Are you actually a shapechanged female centaur?"
The Bridge said he wanted to pass along some Good-created items that had been made for fighting Evil and had been captured by his allies. He asked what causes the party wanted to fight, to better pin down areas of cooperation. When the party refused to answer, he said that if they didn't talk, he'd pronounce an unholy word on them. Silvana told him that he should try talking to the Western leaders; the Bridge assured them that he was planning to and left.
Ganeth cast det invis right after the Bridge took off and spotted an astral worm retreating from the area. The party searched their belongings and found a gold coin (projecting astrally) among Frankel's stuff. The coin had a three-quarters view of G's head on one face (scars and all) and the word hope in Western Common on the other. (The same word was also inscribed in elvish, but it was harder to spot; the party stopped playing with it at this point and later turned it over to Nomistrus for further analysis.)
Ganeth, curious what an unholy word might have done to Zenig, cast plane source on him and got a dual Prime Material/Twin Paradises reading.