Eklesa
-While the party was standing in the square trying to wrap their brains around the disaster, Termina Vzorcaya bumps into them and asks them what’s going on. Ollin gives his best answer, and says that they’re going to travel to the Earthsmile.
-Termina suggests the Pjotlkraft, as she’s been holding it for Barthanas while Heinrich Pjotlmann is “in exile”. They all go for it.
-they cast off, headed for Wraybridge, Arcturus is still in awe of its capabilities. The Pjotlkrew is handling operations for the trip. the party gathers that Pjotlmann is serving his exile in the Fvavalk Kingdom by attempting to get them to construct airships so that he can return to The Kalashek with a fleet of them while leaving the orcs with an edge in their conquest.

Wraybridge
-a crowd gathers as the ‘kraft comes in for a landing, Alphonse steps out first so that they get a better reception. guards bow to him and the others gathered assume that he built the airship.
-he tells the guards that he and the party need to get into the earthsmile to find a settlement, the guards tell him no such thing exists. an old man emerges from the crowd and says that he knows what Alphonse is talking about bc he’s been there. the man (Blind Harry) says that he went down there 50 years ago on an adventure and everyone died except for him. they were slain by walking corpses and wraiths of bitter darkness. people get him hushed up and they proceed into the town.
-they are determined to find the place, so they start asking around for a guide. with some help from alphonse, they get a hold of a soldier who walks patrols between the outposts and knows of the town. they take him and the Pjotlkraft into the Earthsmile.

The ‘Smile
-while flying down, Alphonse and Ironbeard try to get a magical read on the place they’re going through divination, but they “look away” before they can finish because there’s something terrible there that would’ve damaged their minds.
-when they disembark, they hear the sounds of approach, and Salchorix leaps down on them. He says that he got Arcturus’ message and has been harassing Combine forces ever since. he fled to the earthsmile hoping to find some shelter, but they followed him, probably because they knew who/what he was. he also noted that all of the forces sent to Bastion were elves, which is not the usual MO for a Combine military effort. Ironbeard notes that he’s heard that one of the King’s advisors, Eoric Deepsong, has been creating tensions between the elves and the dwarves, but it still doesn’t add up.
-Salchorix notes the evil of the place they’re about to enter, and tells Arcturus to trust nothing within. he leaves to engage the pursuing combine forces as the pjotlkraft takes off.
-the party enters the run down and ruined town, and there’s a passage in the back decorated with the torch of Semadra that goes into the canyon wall. Arcturus finds a bat and communes with it. it tells him that the passage is blocked, and that is was done recently. Ollin goes in to check it out, hears noises outside
-skeletons and wraiths are appearing from inside the town, coming for the party. Alphonse and ironbeard set to work on the blockage, while ollin and arcturus hold of the bagguys. Ollin notices some precarious rocks and goes sneaking in into the crowd to take out some of the monsters. Arcturus notices some dry vegetation, gets ironbeard to ignite it with lightning, then fires flaming arrows into the horde. Alphonse makes illusory soldiers to confuse the monsters, ironbeard weakens the blockage by turning the rocks into smaller pieces of platinum, which alphonse blasts through with force evocation. He rips the precarious rocks from the cieling onto the monsters as the party gets into the tunnel.

INSIDE DARKNESS
-they light up torches, Ironbeard notes that the construction looks like its dwarven-inspired. their torches start sputtering because of unnatural darkness. it starts getting strangely warm. ollin sneaks off ahead and accidentally breaks the crumbling floor, which reveals that the structure they’re in is built around some small lava streams.
-they continue on, and run into some nasty drider-demon things and skeletons. Arcturus headshots one, but its still going. the demons infuse two of the skeletons with dark magic, which makes them grow ice spikes from their bodies and have glowing blue eyes. they pounce on ironbeard, but ollin interposes and takes a bad hit. ironbeard blasts some with nature magic, alphonse confuses the shit out of one of the demons, and arcturus puts another arrow into one of them.
-skeletons swarm alphonse, who blocks with mantle of defense, arcturus leaps onto the back of one of the demons and he and ollin get to work on it. Alphonse and ironbeard take out more skeletons. only a few are left, and they turn tail, but the last demon is pinned by arcturus and taken out.
-Alphonse has a minor injury from the skeletons, and he and ironbeard can tell that these are demons of Sheshtui.
-They look around, Ironbeard finds a Semadran altar, Arcturus notes that it’s been defiled with Sehstui stuff. They recover a bloody dagger of Kalashek make and some nice Clan Sardis artifacts.
-Ollin looks down the hall and sees more demons and skeletons around a big altar, they prepare to attack. Ironbeard makes a trap with the dagger he found, ollin and arcturus prepare opening shots. they fire, and take out one of the spider-demon things. From the middle of the demons comes a thing that looks like Hilal The Keeper that was at the channel, but this one looks quite evil.
-They rush in, taking out skeletons as they go. On the altar, they see a blade made out of ice and a large golden lantern. Arcturus fires an arrow at the blade and obliterates it, which injures Sishkaat. Alphonse creates illusory replicas of the sword to screw with the skeletons, who were flocking to it for some kind of power. Ironbeard runs for the lantern, it turns on when he grabs it and starts repelling the lighting things on fire, namely the moss-covered floor. The demons respond with many ice spikes and swarming skeletons. Sishkaat makes an illusory field of innocent civilians as a distraction and swears “By the deceiver of Gods” that he will send their souls to the darkness.
-The party finally takes out all of the skeletons and begins taking out more demons by taking advantage of their disorganization from alphonse’s illusions and the burning-moss floor. The bagguys respond with much force, Arcturus gets impaled by an ice spear from Sishkaat, ironbeard heals him a bit with the lantern, which is using powerful semadran magic. PCs get more injured. Alphonse creates a seeming of a large earth elemental
-More Arcturus-Ollin teamwork to finish off the demons. Sishkaat summons tiny ice wraiths to harry the party. Ironbeard gets some fingers taken off by Sishkaat but turns them into potent alkaline chemicals to dissolve the icy form of Sishkaat. Epic combo of Alphonse’s elemental, Arcturus shooting at stalactites which fall down, and Ironbeard’s salty fingers to set Ollin up for the knife-to-the-face finish of Sishkaat.
-they look around, find more sardis artifacts and find a journal by a Kalashek mage who says that he has finally become more powerful than his nemesis Alphonse Hayek by pledging himself to Shestui, and explains that he was responsible for ending the life of Timothy Arontaler.
-With the dagger, the lantern, and the journal they head out. The combine troops are waiting for them outside and try to get them to hand over their valuables, but Salchorix shows up and together they rout the troops. Sal says that he’s going to continue the fight for the Free Cities, and wishes them luck. The Pjotlkraft lands again and they head off.

Back in Eklesa
-When they arrive in the city, Ironbeard brings out the lantern and it burns away the blackness surrounding the Soverign’s palace and there’s the sound of nasty things dying. Viserigon shows up with his cronies next to them, and a minute later Barthanas walks out, sword in hand. He and Viserigon have an odd exchange in which Viserigon yields the election to him.
-Barthanas has a victory speech and declares that the Kalashek way is the true way, and all those who deny and resist it are their foes and shall be destroyed, unless they convert.
-Ollin hands over the evidence and they explain what happened and why, then Barthanas orders Viserigon to handle it. Barthanas pulls out a letter that he says is for Archon Yukanis, and it is a formal acknowledgement of the Ekwan Republic and an offer of alliance. He peaces out.
-Christina Selmy comes out of the door (people have been exiting the whole time, including many of the senators) with her brother’s body. She explains that he died early in the lockdown. As soon as Alfred Stormway set off some huge spell and was possessed by a demon, Rick Stern charged over and delegged him, and was overwhelmed by other demons. His sword starts humming and roots grow out of the ground and repair his wounds. He gets up and is resentful of his sword.
-Lagto Gjinchar Takosh approaches Arcturus and says that he is very impressed, and Arcturus’ gramba is unquestionable. He humbles himself to ask Arcturus to join the Fvavalk kingdom. Arcturus says no thanks bro and walks off to meet up with the party.
-Ironbeard shows off the stuff they found from clan Sardis and the Kalashek receive him very well. He has opened their eyes to foreigners.
-Alphonse meets up with his mentor, Herald Grayson, who tells him that while Viserigon was running the city, he did a lot to investigate the thieves guild and point fingers at people. Alphonse was slandered pretty heavily, but he played an important role in the election, and it won’t be forgotten. He tells him that when things cool off, he should come back and take his rightful place as a member of the Sovereign’s hand. As a final piece of advice, he says that Ekwa is in danger of attack, and that Yukanis must know this. He should go with his former party to see that their new allies survive.

(entire party)
-enters ETG headquarters, go to see Anderstein. He tells them that they’re gonna leave since the hammer is coming down. Alphonse, Diana, and he stay in the office to pack up the important things, other three leave to help with the general effort and try to find the runes. They do and Ironbeard identifies them (2 necromancy, 1 nature, 1 evocation, 1 divination)
-anderstein says to diana and alph that the three of them need to save their asses because the rest of the guild is expendable and not trustworthy, they get the important stuff and head for the emergency teleportation room

(AOI)
-pocket the runes, go upstairs because the guards are knockin. force of 30 guards and two mages lead by alistair viserigon. asks about zane, with no answer, says that viserigon will pardon those who assist them, still no cooperation.
-the group says that they were held captive by the ETG, as ironbeard is a wealthy foreign merchant, which they eventually accept via more lies. many of the thieves see which way the wind is blowing and side with the guards, so they enter. they hear an explosion from down below

Alph
-walk to teleporter, anderstein looks at the door for a second, and it explodes. He’s seriously injured, diana and alphonse are okay. orc dude and three thugs show up and go for them
-alphonse makes phantom helpers but the baddies swarm him. he gives up and tries to grab anderstein and telekinetically toss him into the teleporter, which fails. He and diana make it through. they’ve been teleported outside of the city about a mile. diana closed it behind them
-diana is glad that alph tried to save her dad, but sad that it didn’t go through, she’s kinda broken, says she’s gonna lay low in Refthek. Alphonse manages to convince her to come back to eklesa on the hopes that they can revive her father or rescue him

AOI
-follow alistair to the source of the explosion, see the teleporter room and the orc and his thugs carrying anderstein’s body.
-he’s alive, and alistair gives the orc a bag of coins, saying “congrats, Shor, you’re now the wealthiest traitor in the city”
-AOI bug out quickly, because they recognize the orc guy
-bells ring outside, indicating that the first voting session is concluded

Ironbeard
-Ollin and arcturus go the inn to drop off their recovered runes, ironbeard goes to the tavern to chill out and contemplate the situation with his daughter
-telepathically contacted by a creepy thing, it says that it can offer him a helpful hint if he lets it protect his daughter. he agrees.
-it tells him that something nasty will happen in the city, and that the path to “purging the darkness” lies deep beneath the surface, “where one feels warmth but sees blackness” which ironbeard thinks is a reference to the earthsmile (a big ravine on the kalashek/combine border)
-he is left to finish his meal, then meets up with ollin and arc

AO
-drop off runes, run into herald grayson, who’s looking for alphonse. ollin tells him that he was last seen in the ETG base, which grayson shakes his head at
-ollin asks some questions about grayson’s political alliegance, which grayson responds “small questions from a small man”. grayson says that when they see alphonse send him to the mage’s tower

AOI
-they meet and try to find alphonse, which they do at the gate.
-they all head to the mage’s tower and walk by the soverign’s palace, where they run into barthanas and his bodyguards
-the 7 of them go to grayson’s study, but bodyguards wait outside

(everybody)
-barthanas is angry that alphonse put the ETG on his side, but grayson points out wisdom in giving him deniability
-barthanas says something grayson wanting alphonse to be one of the Executors, which he explains as “population managers” who ensure that the Kalashek way remains true throughout the nation
-everyone else thinks it sounds really sketchy, but alphonse digs it
-barth leaves to go to the next vote, more small talk, grayson tells ironbeard to remember the name “melissa sardis”
-they go outside to read the results of the vote, and viserigon is trending upwards over barthanas. barthanas is already inside, and they see visergion enter
-silence, then cold, then soverign’s palace surrounded in blackness and an eclipse of the sun. viserigon runs out saying that dark things are within and that he needs to rescue flosshilde and the rest of the senators so that he can be the hero.
-ironbeard recalls the hints he got, and a sage nearby tells them that Melissa Sardis founded a Hirogen clan under Semadra back in the day with their main temple in the earthsmile, but they got wiped out by followers of Sheshtui and are essentially forgotten.
-they resolve to go to the earthsmile on the pjotlkraft

-Ollin fights with scout guy, good even fight, Ollin wins, guy congrats him.
-Arcturus with ETG guys (and Diana) make big distraction by engaging Sebastian’s guards, success, but diana is caught by the guards as they make extraction. She seems injured from teleporting inside. She’s taken with two of the ETG guys into the stadium for some kind of showy declaration.
-when she’s out, sebastion says she and the ETG have violated this contest and calls for their arrest, which viserigon endorses. chaos in the crowd, many people bug out
-all pcs pitch in to get diana out, they piece out, except ollin who the baddies talk to
-visergion says that he will repeal the arrest order on ollin and the party if he agrees to a one-on-one fight with sebastion. if ollin loses he must publicly support the effort to take down the ETG. he agrees, and wins the fight by arrowing ors. visergion goes into the conclave and letheirax goes to interrogate an ETG guy who’s doing a plea bargain
-diana, ironbeard, alphonse, and arcturus go to the city to mobilize a thieves guild escape, see the guards coming out of the boys heading towards the fish place

-Arcturus heads over to Ironbeard to show him the runes. Arcturus reveals that he got them from the ETG. Alphonse was also on his way back and hears them from the other side of the door, so he decides to not interrupt them.
-Ollin makes his way back to the other two and reports that The Combine has taken Bastion. Ollin and Arcturus reveal that they will be at the tournament tomorrow, and Ironbeard says he’ll come along to watch.
-Alphonse goes back to the ETG base and meets up with Diana Anderstein. She coyly asks him about his relationship availability, Alphonse says he’s open, so she gives him a teasing kiss and reveals that her rune allows her to teleport away.

-The next morning, Arcturus leaves to go to Anderstein Fish to meet up with the ETG. In the back room, he meets up with some other thieves, who are gonna be screwing with contestant’s equipment. He slips off to walk over to Vigil’s Hill (a mile outside of Eklesa) with Ollin and Ironbeard.
-They see some familiar faces (Richard and Christina Selmy and Sebastion Ors). Ollin goes to check out the place where they’ll fight, and it looks like the same one as where he fought Rick Stern. Arcturus and his thief-buddies disguise as people who walk around selling food to get freedom of movement.
-Alphonse goes to the tournament with Diana and sits near the big players (namely Barthanas). He talks about his plans, and Diana says that it sounds like they won’t see each other, so he offers her a place when he becomes big master-spy man, and she smiles.
-The first few matches go down, Arcturus and his dudes make a distraction (two-for-one fries) and hex their target’s weapon.
-Ollin goes into his fight and his teammates fail him, but he kicks ass and achieves victory. Does a few more fights and then enters into the top-tier (individual) fights. Arcturus and Ironbeard are trying to find him to congratulate him, but are intercepted by another ETG guy (who recognizes Arcturus) and says that they’re wanted men, since they’re working for Barthanas, and jumps them with six other guys. They defeat many of the attackers, but decide to run and lose them in the crowd.
-As the high-level fights begin, Diana tells Alphonse she has to do her ETG duties, but she’ll be right back. Ollin is about to go up against a fast-looking guy, mentally steels himself.

Alphonse/Arcturus
-Alphonse notes Diana‘s rune: dimensions-related
-He continues on and locates Bartholomew, gets him to talk to Phillip Kariosi. Ultimately he threatens to take runes, which gets Anderstein to cooperate. Arcturus was listening in, and hears this.
-Alphonse and Anderstein go to visit Kariosi with some ETG thugs, Arcturus hides to look for runes when they’re gone. He disguises himself as a guy that works for the fish place. The ETG thugs in the main room see through it, and tell him to get out, and he eventaully convinces them that he wants to join. They go to look for tom (the dude in who’s next in the chain of command after diana) and he sees the runes while they’re looking for him.
-They get to Tom, who notices Arcturus’ scars, and Tom says that he can join on the condition that he helps them at the warriors competition tomorrow. He accepts, and on his way out jacks the runes. A guy sees him but thought he was trying to steal his fries, so Arcturus gets out.
-On the streets, Alphonse goes with Bartholomew to bully Kariosi. Bartholomew gets straight to business, and Kariosi backs down. Outside they run intoZane Braginsdale, who says that catching Alphonse with thieves will put Alphonse out of a career. Not liking that option, Alphonse initiates a fight. Alphonse swarms him with phantom guards, then Zane hits him with a Tsunami of summoned water. They both get really banged up, Zane ends up with a broken jaw and Alphonse gets concussed. Zane gives up and gets taken prisoner by ETG.

ollin/pjotl
-Pjotlmann and Ollin talk about not killing Viserigon, with Ollin explaining that he wasn’t expecting to have to kill anyone. Pjotlmann talks to Diana about dealing with the semi-failed mission.
-Ollin meets Cristina at the bar, gets some genlock barley wine (a dwarven brand) to impress her.
-They talk about the relative merits ofBarthanas vs Viserigon. Eventually Rick Stern shows up to “assess his skills” for the proving, they go to the fighting square in the Steel District of Eklesa.
-Cristina does some drinking and boasting on Ollin’s behalf on their way over. When they arrive, Ollin and Rick enter the arena, and Cristina operates the levers.
-First they get some uneven terrain, and they go at each other, then Cristina applies some fire. They dance around that, then she adds some smoke. Ollin takes a big beating but doesn’t give up, so Rick calls it and says that Ollin is definitely good enough.
-Ollin talks about his past and recent experiences with kalashek, Cristina and Rick laugh about it. Cristina gives Ollin a healing potion to help with the injuries, and Rick absorbs life from some nearby trees. A Kalashek soldier runs up to Rick and hands him a note. He reads it and smiles, then says that The Combine has taken over Bastion.

On the Pjotlkraft:
-Pjotlmann walks Alphonse to his quarters and they talk about “party-crashing” going on later tonight.
-Ironbeard, Arcturus, and Ollin talk about their next move, and they recall the problem with the statue of Timothy Arontaler as described to them by Dimitri Stonelaw. They decide to follow up on it.
-They pay a visit to William Barthanas, who happens to be meeting with Thomas Dolinorn, the executor of Arontaler’s will. He details the problem: Arontaler had money set aside for the statue, but the Western Builder’s Guild couldn’t come up with the resources in time, so they are using the money for a rebuilding project in the Riverlands.
-head for pjotlhauser tolls, find stuff in his safe, indicates that the ETG is involved.
-Alphonse shows up, says that they should just go to the ETG and talk with them to work things out peacefully

Anderstein Fish visit
-Ironbeard bows out
-infiltration, alph uses secret entrance
-Alph enters, talk with Diana, Ollin sneaks in too, gets seen
-Diana steals Ollin away with Pjotl, Arcturus is outside, confused

Party-Crashing
-Diana briefs Ollin and Pjotl on mission
-head out, O&P make their way to party room
-Pjotl makes a scene, O draws Vis away to talk about security failures
-Sebastian Ors comes out, initiates fight bc he knew about the operation and O’s part in it
-extraction

Alphonse
-goes to buy off diviners, logic goes as: viserigon is bad, do spying on him, payment for work. Diviners are like cool, who wants this done, alphonse says grayson wants to am (mislead him, give alph the power while giving him deniability)
-zane appears, tries to get them instead, alphonse deflects supremely and he leaves, shamed
-alph tells the diviner he’s got a special mission for them: making sure viserigon’s spy shit is legit, they accept
-stormway comes, makes dark and pain, alphonse troubled, tells him to open his mind and heart
-alphonse goes to feast w pjotlmannen, many pomp, barthanas comes around to pjotl and alph, alph has private meeting
-rickstern am there as bodyguard, loling at alphonse’s presence, alph lays the plan down after deciding that barthanas might bite, he bites, once he sees that alphonse is playing the game against itself and rickstern nods eagerly.
-barth tells alph that his friends are back in town, and that he should use them to further the campaign and make resources available to them (ie join the party)

AOI
-go to Viserigon‘s part of the soverign’s palace, and see Letheirax and the swordsman who was in the street fight with Rick Stern when they arrived in Eklesa. Letheirax recognizes Ollin, and lets three of them in. Stupid nice interior. Strange interest in Ironbeard‘s name.
-they make their pitch to Visergion, and he says that it’s the same thing they said to William Barthanas, and they panic. Visergion pulls out a letter from his spies and says that he has something they may want to hear, and he’s not sharing until they offer a better deal. Ollin offers to give them an in on the Ekwan Republic by having the Kalashek set up a training program for their spies and such, and Arcturus offers them the opportunity to study at the channel.
-viserigon is pleased, reads the letter, from a spy of his in The Combine, who talks about unrest being spread amongst the dwarves by Eoric Deepsong, and says that she has gone into hiding because the combine is after her now that her father’s involvement in the rebellion is known. It’s signed “H”, which Ironbeard connects the dots to mean his daughter Helga, who was acting president of The Ironbeard Trading Company.
-Vis says that if he doesn’t win, he can’t guarantee the safety of spies like Helga, much resentment from party, but Ironbeard says he’ll do his best to make sure his daughter is safe.
-AOI leave and start talking amongst themselves about who they should support. They lean towards visergion first because he has less overtly destructive goals and because of Ironbeard’s daughter. Soon after, IB decides that he can disown his daughter to make her a target no more, and they conclude that viserigon is too slimy so they settle on supporting Barthanas.

Alph
-leaves the sages’ tower for breakfast in the square, sees the pjotlkraft landing in front of the tower while blaring a “landing horn”. walks over with the gathering crowd to say howdy.
-meanwhile, AOI can see the pjotlkraft from the square as well so they follow the crowd to it, and spot alphonse. they approach through the crowd, IB is quite curious, O is feeling sneaky, and A is plain awestruck. O sneaks up to Alph and says hi, then the others approach with greetings.
-pjotlmann and alph have some words and invite AOI onto the kraft. the obvious question of alphonse’s departure comes up, and he says that some thieves took the runes so he chased after them with Termina Vzorcaya and they lead here, where he lost them. they buy it, but just barely.
-they take off in the kraft, and blare the horn again for the sages. they make introductions and explain that they’re supporting barthanas in the election to help the ER. Pjotl and Alphonse approve.
-lunch is served (cooked by Jeddre) and then pjotl and alph go to the captain’s cabin so that pjotl can get the story from alph. Ollin follows and listens in on the talk from a precarious position. Alph tells it true and pjotl listens, then they hit a rough patch and ollin nearly falls off the ship but is left hanging in full view of the main window in the captain’s cabin.
-pjotl pulls him inside and they discuss what he just heard. alph admits his lie but says to ollin that he should understand (as a former assassin) the need for temporary secrets. Al and Pj pitch to O that he should join up with the ETG to help the cause. he reluctantly accepts and joins IB and Arc.

Rough Draft:

Alphonse:
-on desk, invitation to barthanas’ feast and to viserigon’s feast, alphonse says “heh”
-goes to dinner with mentor, they talk about the runes, alphonse hears who may need them, mentor disapproves of alphonse’s self-serving behavior. goes on a rant about how “back in his day” kalashek were great because they saw the big picture and always worked for the nation. knowledge drop about archon yukanis. mentor says that he unofficially supports barthanas because he wants to go back to the old ways
-alphonse mulls everything over and decides to hit up his old friend bartholomew anderstein and conjures up a plan to get him and the diviners in his pocket so he can has mega-theiving and be at the head of an awesome network.
-goes to anderstein’s, which is hidden in the back of a fish guttery, runs into diana, who he gives the cold shoulder to. anderstein shows some of his illusion powers, which alphonse tops by orders of magnitude. alphonse makes the pitch to him, and he dances around to see what alphonse’s angles are, trust in alph and the potential of the deal makes him jump on it. he agrees to put some of his men on screwing viserigon’s operations (mutual enemy, since he’s equally tricksy). handshake between master&apprentice

AOI:
-looking for soverign’s palace, ironbeard asks a few people, finds a dwarven guardsman (dimitri stonelaw), and he gives him the location, but says its gonna be a hell of a wait. ironbeard puts on the charm and gets stonelaw to give him priority in exchange for a drink and for some reminiscing at the silver hearth
-they go to the silver hearth later that night, ollin talks politics with letheirax, and ironbeard talks to stonelaw about much the same. they come away with general outlines of barthanas and viserigon’s plans
*barthanas wants to restore glory to the kalashek by waging war against the combine and taking lands from them
*viserigon wants to keep the combine at bay with a spy war, while strengthening the economy of the kalashek
letheirax gives ollin a priority meeting with viserigon for the next day (after the one with barthanas)
-they has accomodations, then next morning, they find Stonelaw, who uses his authority to bring them into the palace, then to barthanas’ office
-inside he has r&t, his wife, and some other dude, tail end of some explanation as they walk in. introductions via stonelaw, ironbeard says they’re from the ER, and that they’ll willing to trade good quality iron for recognition. barthanas tentatively bites, and pitches them his plan, including the role of the Unholy Fvavalk Kingdom. arcturus perks up. barthanas’ wife drops the adultery bomb on viserigon
-AOI thank him and leave, arcturus goes to send a message to the salchorix in Bastion telling them about barthanas’ plans for the orcs. ollin saw that t was following him, so he tails her. ironbeard heads to a common area, where he sees r snacking on some caramel candy.
-after A writes his letter, t speaks up and starts pestering him about what the letter was for, tries to get him to enter the warrior’s tournament as an archer for barth. ollin watches their argument, they both decide that its going nowhere so they mutually back off. as t is leaving, O says that he might be willing to fight for barthanas, but they need to talk it over at the silver hearth. she accepts.

Arcturus, Ollin, and Ironbeard:
-With their mission from Archon Yukanis and with Alphonse and Termina Vzorcaya having left for the Kalashek lands, they plan their route to Eklesa from Bastion. They plan to go over land through The Combine, The Pimen, and then up the Blas river to Eklesa.
-Acrturus puts them on hilltop for safer traveling (good view and a nice path), they see a combine patrol, who also sees them, they ride over. Ironbeard tries to tell them that they’re just traders coming from The Free Cities of Jara. The patrol leader doesn’t buy the story, and goes to look through the wagon. Ollin was inside, but he gets out of sight quickly. They’re satisfied by the wagon’s contents, and head off. Not knowing that there’s any elves around, they speak in elven and spill the beans about going to the jeran/combine border.
-Ollin pops out and tries to buy off three of the guys (having concluded that this is no ordinary patrol and that everyone but the leader is a mercenary), saying that they need protection, lead guy shoots it down, but says that they can meet up with another patrol on their present course. They stop going on their present course, to avoid said patrol.
-They cross through the Combine lands and the Pimen lands and part of the riverlands in the Kalashek, going slowly through swamp.
-Some dudes on horseback ride toward them on the path through the swamp, Arcturus sees an orc and fires an arrow, which hits. they’re pretty chill about it, but it turns out there’s others with him (two humans). Ironbeard smoothes things over with an introduction, they all look at each other weirdly when they hear Arcturus’ name. They introduce themselves, orc is Lagto Gjinchar Takosh (Arcturus knows that Lagto is an old orc title, not used anymore), the other two are Archenar Hayvon and Galvan Sirrusa.
-They share the road, but the second night Archenar asks Arcturus about his mother. Arcturus is very taken aback. Arcturus deflects question kindly, and Archenar says that if he doesn’t want to talk about it now, there’ll be plenty of time on the road.

Alphonse and Pjotlmann:
-Heinrich Pjotlmann stages an awesome landing in Eltonshold in his Pjotlkraft. He disembarks and goes through a crowd of fans, two sages are at the end, and they try to courteously state their awe, but Pjotlmann lashes out at them. They don’t let him mouth off to them in front of their people, and call him out on abandoning his wife. Pjotlmann storms off.
-Pjotlmann attends conferences by the local craftsmen and promotes barthanas love
-As Alphonse, Termina, and the Kalashek ambassador from Bastion sees the pjotlkraft land from afar. Alphonse has a solid friend in Pjotlmann and recognizes his kraft, so he stops in the city to find Pjotlmann. Alphonse finds him in a conference, but doesn’t care about the crafts show, so interrupts and patronizes the craftsmen and talks old friend with Pjotl. The host awkwardly calls the conference for the day, and Alphonse and Pjotlmann go to a bar to hang out. Alphonse tells Pjotlmann about the runes and how he wants to make them “actionable items”. They leave the next day for Eklesa in the Pjotlkraft.
-Upon their arrival, they go their separate ways. Pjotlmann goes home to see wife, they trade insults. There’s a note on his desk from William Barthanas, telling him to see him when he arrives.
-Pjotlmann goes to Barthanas’ apartment in the soverign’s palace, reports on the Pjotlkraft tour. Barthanas responds curtly, then barthanas says that now they’re officially in the “do things in my name” phase of the election, so Pjotlmann needs to get cracking and look for problem solvers for the Barthanas camp. Pjotlmann mentions Alphonse, and Barthanas says that he’s already working to develop him as an asset…
-Alphonse goes back to his college to see if he can get a feel for how he might best use his runes (for bargaining). One of the first people he sees is Herald Grayson, his mentor and friend. They have some small talk, and make dinner plans. Grayson says that he’d like to keep chatting, but someone is waiting to see Alphonse in his room/office.
-Inside, a big man sits in his chair and says that he’s here on behalf of the Kalashek people to debrief Alphonse on “The Upstarts Situation” (full details on Yukanis, his allies and such). Alphonse tries to negotiate, but the big man pulls out a dagger. From behind the door a woman appears and tells the big man to put his stupid dagger away. They begin negotiating. The final agreement is that in exchange for Alphonse’s information, they promise to make his brother’s time representing the riverlands easier by giving him better access to stuff to combat flooding.

Arcturus, Ollin, and Ironbeard:
-Arcturus can’t take the mystery anymore, so he asks Archenar what the story with his mother is. The hightlights:
*Arcturus’ mother was the sister of the man who was clan chief to the Aurorans, she was captured when she was pregnant, hence Arcturus being born into slavery
*The reason that Archenar and some other Aurorans are with Orcs is because they have been religiously united by a man named Osnithett, and plan to reform Orc society via war
*They too are going to Eklesa to meet with William Barthanas, who plans to support them in their effort.
*He tells Arcturus that since he is of clan Aurora, he too is called to glory, but Arcturus refuses.
-They get to the city, Orc dude goes to the wall and has hostile greeting, explains he’s on business to see Barthanas, but no has believes him. Ironbeard steps up and convinces the guard to let them in, under the guise of traders (which is not totally false).
-Just inside the city, they see a crowd gathering around two men with swords drawn. The two trade a few insults, then get to fighting. The bigger guy is beaten, and then a woman comes up behind the winner with a crossbow at his head. They all break off. An elf (with glowing white eyes) goes up to the former winner and reassures him that Barthanas’ dogs bark worse than they bite. He snaps his head to Ironbeard’s wagon and introduces himself to them. He is Letheirax. He then asks them why they are in Eklesa, ollin deflects the question after pushing, and Letheirax politely invites Ollin to meet him at the silver hearth to talk philosophy and politics.

-Alphonse tells Termina that they have to go to the palace because something is wrong, he’s a little freaked.
-Back at the palace, The Director shows up sword drawn and asks what the hell happened. Ollin, Arcturus, and Ironbeard explain the attack by the Combine infiltrators, and she gets pissed and says extreme measures need to be taken to get shit straight.
-Alphonse and Termina show up, and Alphonse says that they need to meet as a group because Archon Yukanis just contacted him (mentally). They go to Ethricil’s room, and Alphonse pulls out a white orb from one of Ethricil’s bags, and they gather around it. It glows purple and appears to crack open, and then they all get contacted by the Archon. He can tell that there’s a fifth person there, and he asks who it is, Alphonse explains and vouches for her. Termina says “nations are born in chaos”, and he digs it so he carries on. He explains that he’s been “looking in” on Ethricil every once in a while, and that he made Ethricil surrender to the Combine infiltrators so that the five of them can use him as a spying tool and stop the infiltrators.
-The Archon hacks Ethricil’s mind again, and they all see through his eyes. He’s in a house, and he can hear the Combine infiltrators talking about leaving through the docks. With their answer, they leave.
-The director intercepts them outside, and says that she needs them to follow her. She walks them down some hallways, and starts explaining that Bastion is named such, because when the Orcs ruled the world, it was the center of the slave trade. It was also the center of the world, and wanting to hold the center, they gathered a hundred wizards, who focused vast quantities of magical energy beneath the keep that could be called upon to create a barrier that would prevent anything from entering or leaving the city. It was never used however, since the city fell from betrayal, and not an all-out assault. She opened a secret passage and led them down, and they entered a stone chamber that had a strange ambient hum.
-She doesn’t know how to activate it though, so Alphonse and Ironbeard figure it out and activate it. Alphonse says that he’s gonna stay there because it needs someone to maintain it while it’s “running”. They all say cool and head out for the docks.
-Termina goes to take a shortcut to the docks, but on her way down, encounters the Kalashek ambassador, her guard, and an inconspicuous human man. The guard is startled and draws his sword, Termina says something to piss him off, then he slips about having a mage with them who would tear her apart. The third human, having had his cover blown, drops the illusion, and shows that he’s Alphonse. He explains that he saw the runes that the Archon promised him while they were in Ethricil’s room, so he grabbed them and is now taking his leave. He tells Termina that she should come with, and after some thinking, she agrees.
-The other three have left the palace and now face the switchback down to the docks. They look over the edge, and spot who they suspect to be the infiltrators. Ollin steps back a few paces, then makes a running leap off the cliff (about 200 feet down to the docks). HIs rune allows him to fall slower than freefalling, so he sticks the landing without issue. Arcturus pulls out a rope, and starts climbing down the cliff. Ironbeard turns the soles of his shoes into metal and makes strips of the rock face metal as well, and uses his magnetism magic to walk down.
-The group of infiltrators is boarding a small ship, and Ollin decides to stall them while the others arrive. He sneaks up and, in the weirdest voice possible, warns the infiltrators that if they leave the harbor, they will be plagued by zombie-ghosts for forever. All of them give him a wtf look for a few seconds, then they recognize him and draw weapons.
-By now the other two are within striking distance, so they join in. Ollin goes straight for Ethricil, who’s been tied up, and cuts his bonds and pushes him into the water. The dragon that got smuggled in flies down and attacks Ethricil, nearly killing him. Ironbeard tries to buy the wizard off mid-fight, but she dicks around and keeps him talking while the others fight. Termina sees the whole thing going down, and was compelled by her drunken vigilante alter-ego to join the fight. She sprints over, and does her thing.
-Ironbeard breaks their will to fight when he uses magnetism to catapult the wizard into the water, and she asks if his offer to join them is still good. Cosuv grabs the dagger out of one of the elves’ hands and says “this isn’t over”, then cuts his throat. Everyone is shocked for the moment, then a gray spirit-looking thing rises from his body and flies away toward Lorath. The two elves surrender, and the wizard calls off the dragon.
-Termina books it back to Alphonse, who has a ship ready, and they leave for the Kalashek capital, Iklesa.
-Ethricil recovers for a day, but the negotiations are resolved. The Pimen, Jaran, and Orc ambassadors agreed to some amount of trade with the Ekwan Republic.
-Everyone is confused as to why Termina and Alphonse left, but they assume they went to the Kalashek lands. Archon Yukanis contacts the three of them once the negotiations are over, and informs them that they’ll get to see Termina and Alphonse again, since there’s a rather large problem in the Kalashek lands that needs resolving, and if representatives of the Ekwan republic were there to facilitate it, the Kalashek would be in their debt…