Session Date: 10/30/2023
We arrive in Brex Grana and the station is pretty close to empty — it’s still early in the morning yet, fog’s still hanging over the ground, and most of the other passengers disembarked from the train before this step. As we step outside of the station there is some fresh graffiti that is rude toward changelings — Hexspawn — something that isn’t quite a slur, but is very rude. Faylen pulls some gloves on and hides his ears so that he couldn’t be clocked as a changeling immediately on walking into the city. There are changelings in the city that are living here — some are more affected than others: crows feet, different color eyes, claws.
Axamonar and Clement aren’t here yet, despite the fact they said they’d be here once we got here.
There’s a group of people out early with signs to protest, led by a man who seems like a pleasant sort of scholar. He seems to be stopping all of the changelings and wanting to ask questions — essentially, and in nicer terms, asking for changelings to explain why they’re here and why they’re in the town. He notices us watching him and he comes up to us and asks if we are traveling, then says that he’s a concerned citizen and we should look out for “those kinds” of people. Mary is confused by this, and Tabby is somewhat bothered by this. He focuses on Mary at first, then goes over to Faylen trying to find an ally in this. Tabby speaks up and says everything is just fine and he should leave us alone. A large guy comes up and asks this gentlemen if there’s any issue, and he says no, not at all. Boyet asks if they’re going to search for hexspawn, and Mardian waves him off and gives us his name.
Mardian Gurney is the bigot, Boyet Belch is the guard.
Faylen explains that if Axamonar has a body then he’s probably at a rowdy tavern, but if he doesn’t have a body he’s not sure where to search for Axamonar. Bosch recalls a tavern named The Murky Dragonfruit that fits that description. We make it and the people there are the stragglers from last night and there are a couple of guys still in a fight, too punchdrunk to fall. A goblin named Gurt calls out to Bosch excitedly as he stands behind the bar. Bosch is happy to see him. Bosch gives him the swamp booze and Gurt forgives all of Bosch’s debts and we all take a moment to look over the fighters, who have been fighting since 7pm.
We learn that Axamonar is typically a regular here when he’s in town, but he hasn’t been around recently, which means that he isn’t here.
The conversation continues and starts to dig into the intricacies of the politics behind the changelings and Bosch basically wants to blow something up to even out the political landscape, and Faylen and Gurt have to explain that you can’t cause violence or else it’ll prove Mardian correct, but changelings will also never be able to do enough to earn their place here for those types of people.
We eventually get breakfast and move to a table to begin what to do. We begin discussing how we want to start approaching the city to look for Axamonar and the missing shard. Faylen is in the camp that we should perhaps start to search for the shard to at least find it so we know what we’re dealing with and waiting on Axamonar. A woman with sharp features and mixed ancestry that is part of the Ephiny Lunt of the Ministry of Abjuration. While Faylen argues we should hand the piece over, the others aren’t so sure. Some of the others realize that while she may be part of the government, she may be working with other branches of the government that aren’t tied in with Axominar and there may be other motives at play.
Bosch argues that we keep the artifact in a box somewhere safe and we need to retrieve it. Faylen starts to object but Bosch kicks him under the table to shut up. She’s not pleased with this and tries to blame Axominar for things, and Bosch explains that there is an arcane seal and that Faylen has examined it. Faylen quickly jumps in an explains the great and clever innovations that Axominar’s done for it. She is unimpressed and it’s at this point that Faylen in particular realizes that she wants to basically throw Axamonar under the bus for everything that’s happened. We all leave to go to “the box” and find that there is no box, actually.
She (Ephiny Lunt) knows that Axamonar could not have done this because she knows more about his status of him. She is frustrated, but not upset at us specifically as much as Axamonar. She thinks we genuinely did place the box here, and she believes we do think that Axominar picked it up, but she feels that someone else stole it.
Ministry of Divination is the real name of the Misconduct Department.
We do discuss possibilities that maybe she was the one that influenced Crawforde, and we also recall that her items were illegal (but is it illegal if you don’t actually exist?)..