Session 47 - Scar Tissue

This is the 47th session of the game Ashes.

Summary
Emeran and his mother Maylin finish their hug and introductions are made to the other Patrons members, as well as Maylin introducing her band. Maylin asks if Emeran and his friends would like to join in, and the party agrees. The bands play together as the night continues on. The party notices a halfling man of some importance watching the show, and Maylin gives him a nod of acknowledgement. Acaelus is able to recognize that the man is Pugsly Barlow, the leader of the Merchant's Guild and leader of Buyway.

The set ends, and the collected bands find tables to drink and exchange stories. Maylin and Emeran discuss what they've been doing since the war, and share stories about their journey that brings them here. Maylin explains that she was able to track down two members of the Pharmacopeia, Seno and Nobelin, and says that they travel with her, and are in town somewhere acquiring horses and setting up camp.

The party will notice a young man drinking and causing a scene at the bar that people are giving some distance. Hal will note that the young man named Willbur was acting in this manner since his mother was killed a few days ago, and she was apparently known as a Blackdale Loyalist. Maylin spit on the floor at the mention. Acaelus decided to go over to Willbur and try to give him some piece of mind, and gather some information.

Eventually Mr. Barlow arrives at their table, and gives Maylin a kiss on the hand, asking if she was planning on staying in Buyway. She replied that she was thinking about heading to Kronstrad, and he thanked her for all her work here in Buyway.

The night seemingly over, the parties began to head their separate ways and Maylin asked Emeran if he wanted to see Seno and Nobelin at their camp, and he agreed with Autumn and Shawn going with to accompany. The rest of the party made their way back to Acaelus's familial home. Maylin led the others to a campsite not too far outside of the city, and there didn't seem to be anyone there. She believed she knew where Seno and Nobelin were, and asked Autumn if he wished to go with, saying something to the effect of what they were going to would be difficult to see.

The trio agreed and began heading to an all darkened manor, and Maylin let herself in. From the interior some muffled sounds could be heard, sounds of a struggle behind a door at the end of the main chamber's hall. Maylin explained that they had been here in town hunting down people from the Blackdale military and that's why they were here tonight. She asks Emeran to go with her through the door, and Autumn tries to talk Emeran out of going. Emeran begins to go down the hall with his mother, and Acaelus through Shawn flies on Emeran shoulder trying to stay with him into the room. Emeran threatens to kill the bird if it doesn't fly off, and Acaelus has Shawn fly back to Autumn.

Emeran crosses the threshold of the door, seeing Nobelin and Seno, both covered in blood, and nearby a familiar man to Emeran is tied in a chair in the center of the room. The man is Jasper Black, one of the people responsible for the torture and imprisonment of Emeran's entire family and the Pharmacopeia. They hand Emeran a knife. He can hear some muffled noise coming from the closet and find a woman and a young child tied up, it seems as though after the war Jasper was able to change his identity and start a new life in Buyway, even getting to start a family.

At the same time, the remaining party heading to Emeran's Manor decided to try and get to the other manor to help Emeran, Elias polymorphed into a Giant Eagle and the remaining party hopped on and were being brought over. Along with that Autumn crept into the room as a polymorphed spider to keep an eye on things. By the time the party arrived, Emeran had decided he couldn't go through with the torture and killing of Jasper, and left the room. The assembled party spoke with Emeran about what he wanted to do. And with some thought, Emeran kicked the door to the room in.

The party converged all at once, using some Hold Person spells to keep everyone in place, and took over the room in an instant. Elias used a Zone of Truth spell on the entire room, and the party began to question Maylin and Jasper. They learned that Maylin and her party have been going around and killing anyone associated with the Blackdale military, including the woman killed the previous week. They learned from Jasper that his associate Eva Driefuss had a pact to some kind of creature which fed on the suffering of others, calling the camps they established for the Pharmacopeia members an experiment for this entity. Jasper was jealous of Eva's connection with this creature, and hoped that if he worked with her that he could also get this power. At one point Themus asked to speak with Emeran outside the room, which caused a bit of a heated discussion between Themus and Autumn about not trusting what Themus would tell Emeran, but eventually the two stepped out. Themus reminded Emeran of their excursion to Bottom City when they tracked down that Blackdale loyalist, and Themus stopped Emeran from torturing him and killed the man himself.

Ultimately the party decided to let Maylin and her group leave, with Emeran leaving things on bitter terms with his mother. The party also decided to hand Jasper over to the authorities, and realized they could trust Deedrick Burnside back in Kronstrad, and so Acaelus teleported them to Mable's circle and Burnside was able to pick him up. Astraea was able to comfort the woman and child, and convince the others to leave her with the house and money.

That night Elias scryed on Gregor Strauss, seeing him on the darkened docks of Coldport.

The next day the party had a discussion about last night and what happened. The talk went completely fine and there was no bad blood :) . Astraea hit the nail on the head during the discussion stating that in general everyone talks a lot, and that they should talk to each other more.

Eventually the party made their way to the railroad station with the intention of getting on a train to Coldport to continue following the leads that brought them out here in the first place (The Shadow Isles where Eva brought Emeran's dad and the others, Kaen Caelore the ancient Elven city which will be a place of aid in what the Stonespeaker spoke with Elias about, and tracking Gregor Strauss as he heads in this direction.)

After some schmoozing, the party was able to get passage on the train, playing their instruments each night. During the travel Elias scryed three times. The first scry he searched for and found Emeran's father Hugo, who seemed to be in a place that was very dark, and his breathing was haggard, though he seemed to just be a head attached to some larger thing. The second scry was on Eva Druifuss, and she was seen in a darkened Nonagon chamber. The final scry was on Gregor Strauss and saw him giving orders at the back of a ship.