Last Time, the Agate Seekers were ambushed by a group of men wearing a black gauntlet symbol, and now, the initiative is rolled and the fight begins. It's a tough fight, as Dareth Lion'el Griffmane is downed and almost killed and Zora is also downed; by accident by Mikhail but immediately brought back. Volk Lesnoy meanwhile gets hit by a Silver Bullet, shot by the Half-Elf man in charge with the Hobgoblin, and hurt quite badly in one shot. Thankfully, an attempt by Mikhail to save Dareth with a Dimension Door, using his Colbalt Dragon's Violin, bore fruit, as they teleported right in front of the Midnight Sun and Hrazurr the Strangler. The midnight sun was not happy about their guests being attacked, and so they came to the Party's help.
After winning the fight, leaving the Hobgoblin leader of the group unconscious, Dareth tied up the leader to question him later, and the party talked to the Midnight Sun. Turns out they actually invited these individuals, The Bloodletters, after Idral of the Wretched Hunters told them about them, in order to learn more about them for Dareth, as they suspected they may be the ones involved with the sack of Castle Skyhold.
The hobgoblin eventually wakes up, but is resistant to questioning, only uttering the sentence "The Steelhands will bleed you dry" before crunching on a poison pill and expiring. Nonetheless, after looting the bodies and finding two symbols of Bane, implying a religious significance, the party accompanied the Midnight Sun and Hrazurr to the Underoffice.
First, the Midnight Sun told the party what they knew about the Bloodletters. They are apparently a criminal organization and Baneite cult located in southern Galon and northern Albia. They're led by one Magnus Steelhand and his two sons, but they were not able to find out more about them, their sons or even who the sons' mother is. Sooty was able to pipe up however, mentioning that they heard about the Steelhand Family; a tyrannical noble family from Galon that ceased to be even before the Royal Union of Albia, Galon and Wanil came to be, after being deposed.
Next, the Midnight Sun gave some updates to everyone's inquiries. For Mikhail, Annalise Krios is indeed working under an adventurer's guild called The Evergreen Hunt, as their main healer and Bard, as she developed bardic abilities. Its other members are Fenmaer Ashcrown, a Wood Elf ranger, Vidar Knox, a Tabaxi rogue and private investigator, and Imtol Orizys, a silver Dragonborn Paladin. They mostly work in eastern Liwilai, in countries such as the Kingdom of Hugan, Grehel, the Kingdom of Bursztyn, the High Duchy of Leijona and the Medweda Empire, where they deal with monstrous threats.
For Sooty, the Midnight Sun was not able to locate Selene McCoy, but was able to find out that she was last seen entering the Bridgeston Mages' School, where, according to them, both she and Sooty studied, but never coming out. The Midnight Sun worries that some entity in the school made her disappear; however Sooty had something else in his mind: He didn't remember ever enrolling in that school with her... The Midnight Sun then recommended that, perhaps, the group should take any guild quests coming from the college in order to investigate.
Next up, Philomena Snapdragon. The Midnight Sun wasn't really able to find much out about the stolen artifact, as it has apparently stopped moving and the client didn't want the item to sell it, but to keep it. However, they found out that it's called the Martyr's Rosary, an Illiadian-Sancstorylian Artifact of Redika, the Illiadian goddess of healers, and that it was gifted to Ilmater and his clergy in times of a great plague, to help heal the people. They also were able to find out that Philomena's client had horns... but that's it.
As for Volk, they weren't able to find out much about them, but about legends of a monster in the woods he came from, killing bandits and those who hurt innocents. Volk then told them that this checks out, and about what he had learned about himself a few days prior, leaving the Midnight Sun quite baffled, if intrigued. The Midnight Sun then said that this monster, or rather Volk, was known as “The Rage of the Forest”, “The Blood-Red Blight” or “The Vine Monster" in that area of the Medweda Empire, becoming quite infamous.
Then, Dareth. About the subject of the Emerald of the Crossroads, The Midnight Sun was able to find out a poem in Dareth's general home area that at least is a thousand years old, going a little bit like this: “And the lord of griffon’s manes rules fair and just, as the crossroads’ emerald lends him his wisdom.” Apparently it's from near Skyhold, Greencaw and Ridgestown in Galon, and recommended to Dareth to perhaps look south-east of Greencaw for answers.
They then took Zora aside, for a private conversation, and as the two returned, Zora had a bit of a worried smile on her face.
The Midnight Sun then revealed some things about themselves. They were indeed Ylos Asol's twin, and that both he, them, and their siblings (such as Evalwyn) are the experiments of a madwoman called Maralee Shadish, who had dark plans to start an Era of Shadows on Sancstoryl, similarly to the one on Illiad, and they and their siblings were all experiments by her. However, they all managed to break free of her, and ended her.
The Midnight Sun then asked if the party would like them to look into further things in the future; provided they kept protecting Ylos, of course. The party (with Dareth being a bit reluctant due to disliking Ylos for his blabbermouth tendencies), agreed, and new things were decided to be looked into:
Dareth asked them to look for his sister Clara Griffmane.
Mikhail told them to keep looking into the Evergreen Hunt, and give notice if they ever stay in one place for a length of a time.
Sooty originally wanted them to look into the canary feather he found at Svantmiirik's founding festival, so that he could talk to the old man... But it had turned into a dinnerplate-sized scale of a Gold Dragon. Mikhail and the Midnight Sun recommended that Sooty better seek out a cleric of Bahamut for that. Instead, they are to look more into Selene's whereabouts.
Volk wanted the Midnight Sun to look into druid groves in Medweda, which they happily obliged.
Philomena asked them to keep looking for the artifact or the client.
Zora meanwhile only referenced what they told them in private.
As the party left, Dareth felt something light hit his head... and as he looked down, he saw a card on the ground. Picking it up, he saw the Statue Card, the very same that the old lady so long ago had drawn. Muttering to himself "This is why I hate fortunes...", he stashed away the card and went along.
The party then returned home to the A Taste of Home, which was in the process of closing, as Kilbi Leaftooth and "Jenny" wiped down the tables. Kilbi told them of the "woman and her Bugbear-ish companion, who tipped well and told her to tell the party to meet M.S.", which the party then said was already done. Kilbi then said they'd probably to hire a Bard, with the stage done, soon, as well as a new server to help out "Jenny" a bit, which Dareth sighed about a little. This, however, could be done over the coming days, as for now, the party went to bed.
Level up to Lv. 5!
SESSION END!