Session Notes: 10/22/2023

We disembark from the boat with Bronze and are traveling to the city of Apamea. We have all heard that Apamea is called the City of Peace. Dia knows her father was upset that the city wouldn’t allow him a foothold. Inky knows that there was a project to create Apamea and it was not particularly successful: the city was built and everyone lives there dealing with the consequences of it.

Bronze salutes us and tells us good luck before waving us off. The climate is pretty moderate, and we are passing through the plains. Arythas knows that there used to be a forest here but there just isn’t now because of all of the fighting that happened here. We join a caravan and go with them to Apamea. Arythas is on guard duty, Dia is being an aunt to the children on the caravan, Iskra is doing his best not to be depressed, and Inky is reading through his book about his ancestor and is trying to decide if his ancestor wrote in a flourishing way or if that’s how all dragons spoke.

Rohan is checking over himself after the attack and trying to piece together anything he may not remember. He can tell that he wasn’t tortured or untying like that, and Taraaq explains what shape his body was in when Taraaq came to. Something was done to Rohan that he just can’t see. It was either delivered by other means — maybe a spell or some similar influence — or there is something that he just can’t find or see yet.

We make it to the city. In the center is a tower that seem to be made of three completely different buildings mashed together. The Priesthood of Erathis felt that people went to war because nobody spent enough time together to get to know each others — they teleported pieces of different cities together into one, and it is clearly not working very well. We comment how fucking weird and generally disappointing this city seems at the start. We do not see any Bloodsoaked Banner on the way in, but we get the idea that in this place they may have a large presence. The city does not look happy, and there are walls separating the districts from each other. It occurs to Inky that the war was between four nations: Elves, Orcs, Hobgoblins, and Dwarves. There is no dwarven district above.

Dia asks if we should go back to Arcfort with the Bloodsoaked Banner. Rohan says we did come up here to save Bertram, he isn’t sure why we would turn back. Dia admits that she wants to save him, yes, but he has someone else looking out for him and she will do a good job. The Bloodsoaked Banner would most likely be among the elves or hobgoblins or there between.

One thing we notice about this city is that there are definitely not enough guards here. There’s humans, a surprising amount of harengons, halflings, gnomes. Rohan sees a lot of gangs walking around, and both Rohan and Arythas notice three guys with bully clubs walking towards us until they see the Blooadsoaked Banner mark out to display.

Dia goes to find someone non-offensive with the help of Arythas and Rohan and she approaches this halfling cafe being run by what appears to be a cute little grandma. Dia goes to ask a question and the grandma moves suddenly and cuts the hand of a cutpurse that was attempting to rob Dia, and the grandma says not in front of her shop. She asks what Dia needs, and Dia starts with complimenting how talented she is. She admits that it was once her lifetime and Dia quickly changes the subject. She is excited that Dia is new in town and gives us cocoa. She introduces herself as Veni Rainshot, but she asks us to call her nona. Dia also buys us all sandwiches with a tip for the cocoa. We have a very pleasant, vague conversation, and Nona eventually gives us directions to the Bloodsoaked Banner.

Dia hides her symbol of Pelor then ties her hair up to hide it under her hat so she is less recognizable. We head out and make it from the elven district to the wall of the hobgoblin border. We find the Bloodsoaked Banner area and Soldos is there in a tank top, coming out and he has scars upon scars of each other in places: despite being an elf that’s seen war, it’s still too much. There’s claws, burns, magic, piercing, slashes. Dia moves so that she’s just outside of striking distance. The man is vaguely surprised as he notices who we are. He invites us inside.

There are 40-50 BSB guys here, inside they are playing cards and talking about hunting, teasing about the gruel for the week. We see a familiar face: the guys from the mountain pass are here. We are updated on what happened after we (and Rafferty) left. Dia warns against being around Prudence or other family members. Dia is told that her friend is safe from Dia’s husband, though they aren’t sure if she escaped or if the BSB have her held. Dia explains that if the charm is broken then death would be the best ending for it all. Dia tells them about Arcfort and the demons and everything going on there and they are glad they were given heads up so they can be ahead of the curve.

There are three districts above ground and one below. The idea was to see if the people spent enough time together then maybe war wouldn’t happen? It has happened to a certain extent, but at the same time it also caused strain in other ways. There is no central leadership in the city so it’s a hot mess. The entire city is a giant shit show that was a bad idea everyone has to deal with. BSB stays here because it is one of the biggest scars left after the war and they help the city.

The BSB has an ask: a guy in the hobgoblin district has been making waves. We need to at least know his name, but if we can bring him here to talk to the BSB that’s better. This gentleman is being described as a prophet. The city is a powder keg and we don’t need him sparking anything. We are given a map of the city from when it was originally formed, but there are parts of it that are no longer really accurate or are blacked out without any context. The tower is mostly abandoned, with light guards to stop people from going up and throwing fireballs at the city.

Iskra knows that some elves reincarnate and during the reincarnation process their bodies assume the more or less same shape, or a very similar shape. Some of the scars that he has are from past lives.

Dia removes the BSB mark and we go to the hobgoblin district. The hobgoblins in the district definitely have logic to the area even fi they’ve given up on certain aspects of it. We make it to the Full Heart Inn: a very clean inn, especially for the city. People are more at ease in here so they are more talkative. Some people are actually homeless and being fed regardless of if they can pay or not. It is mostly humans here, but there’s a smattering of people. One of the innkeepers notices us and greets us, commenting they’ve never seen us before. Rohan speaks for us and explains that we are new and that we’ve heard great things about this group here. Rohan makes a donation to them: enough to stand out, but not an egregious amount.

There’s no specific religious imagery around here for the actual inn despite some of the guests having some. The original group that started here is from Malderry, the capital of Akria. There is an older inn of the same name there that takes in the homeless, drifters, helping those that have fallen on hard times. It is known for having very good sandwiches. Rohan says he would love to help them and asks for direct on who is in charge, and the woman explains that there’s not necessarily a manager per se as much as they are all a committee of people.

We take a sidebar, then Dia pulls Arythas back inside to speak with the lady in the inn. Dia explains we’ve heard rumors of a prophet here in the hobgoblin district and she has no clue if it’s true or not, but she’d love to meet them. We hear someone say “I wish they would not call me that, I did not ask them to,” and we turn to see who’s speaking and it’s Kalvag “The Wrath”, the hobgoblin wizard that was in the prison in the abbey. He says he wishes people would stop calling him that. Everyone but Inky and Arythas hug him excitedly. He says that we should go to speak elsewhere, and he keeps getting stopped by people. He is surprised the BSB doesn’t want to hunt him for sport and we explain that the BSB are about redemption. We admit it might be tough because of his history but the guys at the BSB are our friends just as much as he is, so maybe we can talk through it.

Kalvag explains he arrived here and his goal is to try to mitigate some of the evil he has done. He explains that food is not secure here - he does have the plant growth spell to help plants grow and revitalize the soil around here.

Kalvag recognizes the name Soldos — there was a duel that lasted a few days, which was impressive. There’s reminiscing about the war.

We make our way back to Soldos and Dia explains that we found the prophet — not a prophet by the way — and Dia says that he has to promise not to do anything rash. Arythas crosses his arms and gives Soldos a sharp look. Soldos goes up to Kalvag and walks past Dia and says he thought Kalvag was in a hole somewhere, then reaches an arm out to shake it. Arythas understands the battlefield logic of an old enemy.