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[[Category:Windward Marches]]
[[Category:Epic Path]]
[[Category:Windward Marches Journal]]
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== Tonight in the Windward Marches: Whither Thou Goest...==

We complete our shopping and bartering, then spend the night peacefully under the Iron Hand of Domana at the Temple of Lurain.

Vellum bids farewell to "that guy" she knows in town.  She also makes another stop, Teb-wise.

The rest of the party visits Ologa Krim.  We find out that she has a message that she wants carried to the East.  Her office is extremely martial, if cluttered.  Corvus sees an Imperial Commendation hanging on the wall! <Insert fan-boy ditty here.>  She writes out a letter of introduction and recommendation for us to use with any watchfolk we may encounter. (Unexpected!)

Vellum re-joins us briefly outside the Ologa's office and hastily says she's taking off for the ship, then disappears. The rest of us head ship-wards, as well.  Edric notices that the 4 horses tethered to an unmarked dray-sledge at the base of the tower have no noble house's emblem, and that the extant sigils of House Pteromon have been dyed over. Corvus notes that they are loading crates of thunderstones on the dray.  He thinks that they have bought all the thunderstones and that they seem somewhat smug about it.  Skipia says, "Wait a second! They were buying <i>Huge</i> thunderstones... why are they using a Dray sledge to ferry the stones to the ship they want to power?"

There are no other ships or conveyances at the tower; just the <i>Far Rider</i>.  Sara pounces on our arrival, but the Captain isn't back yet!  Later, at mid-noon-watch, 6 chariots pull their way to our rail.  There are only 5 of the Cannibal Coven left with the Captain.  When Skipia takes a Heal check on them, she discovers they are dead.  They haven't stopped moving and all that, but they are actually, factually dead.  Wha?

The Captain sends the Coven to their rooms, saying he is displeased with them, and that they need to go hole up.  We totally buy this.  Then he says that we need to buy the thunderstones and leave.  Sara glares burning holes through the captain's face as Skipia tells the Captain that he was pipped at the post as far as those thunderstones go.  We saw 18 of them already on the dray...

Peremon straightens his frayed finery and hauls us down to the tower's office where he is defeated by the pinched-faced clerk.  He clutches his head and breaks for the Dray.  He puts on an aura of shine and polish like we've never seen.  They sell him 10 thunderstones at a 25% discount and let him rough them up so that they can sell the story that they were robbed.  We're freaking flabbergasted.  Edric arranges for the stones to go aboard.  By 1400, we are ready to set sail!

Peremon restores the normal sailing order: Sara is once again First Mate, and Edric and Hydrazine are relived of their Harbor post.  Hydrazine sees 3 Packet ships (small, long-distance passenger ship) hauling hull into the tower as we leave. They bear the sigils of House Pteromon.  Packets use a ley-circle, not thunderstones.  We wonder why they are pulling in...

=== Rolling in the Heights===
As always, the Captain is intent on making speed.

Hydrazine considers the True Name business from before.  It's a form of sympathetic magic, and is a major boost when used to summon and bind demons.  The totality of the event is etched indelibly in all our minds with total clarity and permanence.  Most disturbing.

We all go to see Leslie.  She actually invites us all into the landau this time.  It looks like a curiosity shop has exploded into a teenage girl's bedroom.  As she closes the door, all sense of motion and sound form outside completely ceases.  She is scattered and flustered, but seems super-glad to see us and have someone to talk to.

It turns out that the the crazy, terrifying little egg was the Mentor!  She begs us not to speak of him to anyone and asks if she can really, really trust us.  She also wants to tell us things and wants to know if we can be trusted not to tell.  Corvus asks if any of the things she wants to tell us are Edict Crimes.  She admits that there are are ECs in the tale, but they are not hers, and they need to be told.

====Leslie's Story====
: Leslie says her name is really Adifa Aelfyre.  Her house is a very old one, fallen on hard times.  She is Aelfyre of Aelfyre since her father and brother were murdered last year.  Whoever did it also forged Do No Resurrect orders so that they could not be brought back (something neither would have agreed to have happen).  Her uncle is the current Emperor and her family has seated 14 Emperors over time.  Adifa thinks this was done to make her the Aelfyre of Aelfyre.  And then marry her.

: Leanna Mina, Skybreaker, the Vengeance Sprite is She Who Stands Behind the Throne.  She has sworn herself to the Peacock Throne, and makes sure that when the Emperor ascends to the throne, he sheds all his earthly cares, affiliations, and ties.  After the Nightmare Wars, Leanna lent her power to keeping stability in Celegia.  She might even be being contained by the Peacock Throne, but we don't know.

: Once an Emperor ascends, no more life extensions are allowed. So, clearly, being married to the Aelfyre of Aelfyre would be advantageous positioning for the next Vocat Tourney.  The Emperor has been on the throne for over 80 years, so he might be coming to the end...?  Some Emperors will abdicate on their deathbeds so as to be able to accept life extensions again.  But Adifa doesn't know if Emperors who have abdicated really survive very long.

: The kidnappings and "offers of matrimony" came for Adifa the day after her father and brother were murdered.  Their plans only lasted for as long as it took Adifa to go get her mentor.  He was effective, but less than subtle when helping Adifa, so she told her House she was leaving on a <i>wanderyar</i> to decide what to do.  So now she is fleeing her suitors and seeking to bring back her father and brother.

: Her plan is to go to the Windward Marches and become an adventurer, get powerful, successful, and even richer, so she can deal with these guys on her own.  And then bring back her family and get on with her life.

: Bill and the dwarf couples were some of her retainers.

: The Mentor: Long, long, long ago in the Time of Night, the Undead Pantheon tried to take over the world.  The only reason they failed was that the Mad God Puellor created the Vengeance Sprite, and she sealed the Pantheon away.  Then during the Umbral Convergence, for the first time, Domana's Gift in the Sunlight was put in abeyance for a year and a day by the Northern Sorcerer's Guild. The NSG wanted to make their own vengeance sprite that they could control, and they ended up binding an Atropal Mentor into what became <i>her</i> Mentor.  And this guy was one of the nobles.

: The Aelfyre family was involved in shutting down the NSG, and they kinda sorta maybe kept the atropal-vengeance-sprite.  Yikes.

: Now we come to the part where Adifa is a wild mage.  So her just being alive is an edict crime.  If she is executed for this, House Aelfyre will disappear forever.

: And the last bad thing, Adifa says, is that the spells containing the Mentor are keyed to the life-force of the House Aelfyre.  With all that implies for what would happen to the world should Leslie^H^H^H^H^H^HAdifa succumb.

: And the Mentor suggested The Only Way to fix all this: Adifa must become the Emperor.  And she needs Vocats to make this happen.  That means she wants us.  We will be the Ones Who Speak with the Voice of the House Aelfyre.  A force to be reckoned with, indeed.  And 5 is the quorum needed.

Just for the record, Adifa is 15 years old.

The Emperor has not yet indicated that a successor should be named, as Emperors usually do at the end of their time.  There are Contests to prove the mettle of the Emperor himself/herself and to prove the power of the circle of his/her friends (Vocats) to do things that he/she can't.

The Mentor said that she has to adventure as hard as possible to get tough and powerful to survive this plan.

And once she is Emperor, she can change the Edict Crimes into being Not Edict Crimes, and Fix Everything.

Until the Vocat Contests are announced, we have to keep all this under wraps, of course.  And we keep calling her Leslie.

Hydrazine tells us that Atropals are the aborted, undead remnants of failed universes. Demons ans devils are cuddly little housepets next to them.  Extraordinarily powerful and dangerous, they would likely ignore us because we don't register as anything, much less as a threat.  In sum: if the Mentor gets loose, there is no stopping the badness until and unless the Vengeance Sprite engages.  Yikes again.

== Lootz ==

== XPs ==
* Previous XP Total:74,239
** Quest: Meet Adifa: 3,200 XP each
** Quest: Journey to Power, Part I: 3,200 XP each for saying, "Yes!"
* Current XP total: 80,639