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We headed back to Alestia City after dropping off our jailbreakees, and I stopped by to talk to Prince Elector Rowth to let him know at a very high level what we were doing with respect to Upper Thalia. He seemed very dismissive of it. It really didn't seem like we would get support from anyone here at the very least in what we were doing, despite Veris's very personal attack on the governmental body of Alestia recently. I mean, I know Upper Thalia was always chest-pounding about this or that, but it seemed like everyone was just a little too dismissive of recent events. It really bothered me. All the more reason to join the Electoral body and get Alestia a little more prepared.
Anyway, we decided that we need to go take a look into Pernicdel, hoping to get some answers about Fugiri and Kaz. We gated to Tusbel and rode by horseback for a few days to arrive at Pernicdel. It was a sizable city; not as big as Dimmersdel or Tusbel, but still sizable. The most notable feature of it was the dark, menacing cathedral towering above the city walls, visible for quite a ways outside of the city. Wow.
We hung out in the tent city outside for most of a day, talking to a few people and watching the goings on at the gate into the city. It seemed that security was a bit tighter here than even in Dimmersdel; we didn't want to take any chances. So finally, a little before dusk that day, we approached the front gate with our auras suppressed by Trent, and told the guards we were staying the night here on our way to some other city to the north. They let us in after we showed them we had money, gave us a 3 day magical pass, and waved us through.
We got rooms at an inn in town, let Boyce get some Sympathy to the Inn, and then headed out to the cathedral to scope the place out. Once we arrived, I hooked up a telepathic link and Boyce surprisingly volunteered to approach the place. After some intense scrutiny by him as he climbed the stairs to the imposing front door, he indicated that while on the surface the cathedral appeared to be dedicated to Fugiri, the intricate detailing seemed more in-line with Kaz.
Presently he arrived at the front door, which stood 15 feet above him. After some amount of hemming and hawing, he finally decided to knock, and then push the doors open with a loud SQUEAK. Once inside, the telepathic link dropped and he was on his own.
The rest of us fretted and debated about what we should do. Any number of things could've happened. We decided that if he didn't re-emerge in an hour we would head in after him. Luckily, he came back out in only a few minutes. As soon as the door opened and he stepped out, the telepathic link was back up again.
He told us he talked to a Vicar of the church, who indicated but didn't come out and say that the temple was dedicated to something other than Fugiri. Kaz or anything specifically describing Kaz was never mentioned. The interior detailing, Boyce indicated, was all very obviously dedicated to Kaz. He had noted that there was something behind the altar that seemed like it would have been very appropriate for holding the Kaz-gem. Also, the Vicar indicated that Anzja would be in town in a week to hold mass, and that we should attend. Apparently he was going to “mark” Boyce, but Boyce somehow managed to finagle out of it.
We decided to stay here until the next day, get the word on the street about the imposing cathedral, and I would acquire a picture of the cathedral the next day and then we would head back to talk to Kaz about it. We did manage to track down some young nobles later that night who carried a strange aura that might be the equivalent of this “marking” thing that Boyce mentioned.
The next day, after gating in to talk to Kaz, we tried to discuss what things we could do to jog his memory more. I mean seriously, what kind of god completely didn't know who he was granting powers to or why, nor how he was doing it, nor what other powers/abilities he had, or how he could help us, or how he could at least stop helping THEM. I mean since the beginning this guy has been basically useless to us, gotten us in more trouble than he's helped us out of, and he continues to “help” our enemies, unwittingly or no.
Frustrated with our inability to get any answers, we decided to do a little hands-on research regarding Fugiri. Once back in Alestia City, we tried to find a temple dedicated to Fugiri, but apparently there was none. Didn't bode well for the huge temple in Pernicdel actually having ever been dedicated to Fugiri. So instead, I decided to head to the temple of Hathandar, and the boys decided to tag along as well.
I was hoping that we might be able to get some insight into how all this religious stuff works since Kaz is clueless. Not only did we manage to be able to get in to talk to one of the higher ranking priests, we were actually able to speak with the Bishop of Alestia City, a man named Gastalld Müllenberg. We peppered him with questions, picking his brain about how churches tend to work, and what this “marking” thing might be. His answers basically pointed to the situation being that the Fugiri stuff was a cover-up for the real religion of the giant temple in Pernicdel, the little cult of Clueless Kaz. The marking seemed to be basically the equivalent of bestowing a god's “blessing” onto someone.
After we were done questioning the poor fellow, I kicked the guys out and stayed at the temple for another hour or so to meditate on recent happenings. After I returned and met back up with the boys, we decided to head over to Masayume to research Fugiri, since this region of the world seemed to be a bust for him, and while there, it was decided that we would pick Doak and Liri up and bring them home.
After visiting a few of the temples of Fugiri in Masayume, it was quite clear that the bigass temple in Pernicdel had absolutely nothing to do with Fugiri and any symbolism of him was merely a cover for Anzja's cult of Kaz. Fugiri's real temples weren't very organized at all, and were all very small and quite far from ornate. The priests weren't very forthcoming either way, and it generally seemed that the entire religion surrounding Fugiri preferred to remain in the background. Quite different from the temple in Pernicdel indeed.
So anyway, we picked up Doak and Liri at the crane compound and brought them back with us to Alestia City. We returned them to the Occluded Rainbow Inn so that they could get it up and running again, letting them know where we'd be at and that if they needed anything at all, to just come by and ask.
From there, we headed off to Dis to do that research on Azranael that we'd been needing to do for a while. I took some blank bound books with me, and we were able to find a decent, if high-level, history of Azranael, and I copied it into the book. Kaz was not really mentioned at all, definitely not by name, but the “big event” in which all his pals died and he was imprisoned was mentioned, if only in passing. Nothing, however was mentioned about how to detect someone of Azranael's bloodline. I mean it was obvious there was a way to do it, but that answer did not lie here.
We decided that the rest of our questions were too farne-specific for the likes of the realm of devils, and so we headed back to Farne to take care of them. Specifically, back to Masayume, as we'd have a greater chance of finding more information there regarding all of this Kaz stuff. We gated into Mikake, and then traveled from Mikake to Yamazakura, the capital city, to peruse their libraries for any further info on Kaz (by name or no), Azranael, and “the city that was nuked before”.
Of the three, we only found info on the “the city that was nuked before”. It was in the Elven kingdom of Valenesti, a city near the mountains of Upper Thalia by the name of Vandaria. I copied that information into my blank books as well.
From there we headed back to talk to Kaz about all the info we'd found. I handed him the book and let him peruse it until we returned again. While there, we talked about the religious stuff surrounding his cult a little more, but didn't really come to a whole lot in terms of conclusions. We discussed the “marking” thing at length, and eventually Boyce told Kaz to “bless” him, which he did bemusedly. Trent reported in that the aura seemed to be very similar if not exactly the same as the strange aura that those young nobles in Pernicdel had. We weren't exactly sure what it all meant, but we all had Kaz “bless” us before we left so that we might be able to get into the temple if not the city this time without hassle.
From there we headed back up to Pernicdel to attend this church session thing that Anzja was in town for. We dressed well and rode in on horses, and were not even stopped at the gate this time. I don't know if it was because we looked the part or if it was Kaz's blessing that got us in that easily, but whatever.
The mass started at 10pm, and so we showed up around 9:30 and sat near the back. Close to 10pm, the three devils showed up at stood behind us at the back of the temple to observe the goings-on. Eek! We watched with great trepidation as not only did Anzja show up, but so did Veris and Melfir! Gah!
The ceremony was a lot of what I would've expected, except for the part near the end where they walked in 30 of those red headed people, channeled their essences out of of them and into Veris, and then the 30 dropped dead on the floor. I tried to keep myself calm. I did consider running up and attacking Veris with sword blazing for a brief instant, but logic immediately set in, pointing out to myself that there is just no way any of us would have any success doing that in this situation, especially not after she just got a load of power channeled into her. My eye twitched irritatedly for the remainder of the service. I was also kind of pissed that no one else of the congregation here seemed to care that they just murdered a bunch of people so casually right in front of them.
Man. What ARE we going to do? Sure, she might run out of red-heads eventually, but that would mean we just passively let her murder everyone in her stock until the remaining descendants of Azranael are difficult enough to come by that she can't just absorb power willy-nilly, or spend the power so casually. We need to find her stash and some how free them. Free them AND get them to a place that is safe, where they can't be retaken. But where? And we can't just sit around on it. It seemed there was 3-4 weeks before this would happen again, so that is no longer than we could take with this.
Anyway, after the ceremony, following the departure of Anzja, Veris and what seemed to be her puppet, Melfir, Boyce hung around and spoke with a few of the church-goers as people started filing out, while I fumed in the background. The folks did seem to dismissively notice that the gem was gone from its stand behind the altar, but it didn't seem to affect the ceremony at all. Great. They did comment that more people were murdered this time around than usual, but not excessively so.
From there we departed and headed back to talk to Kaz to see if he had felt any prayers come to him during the ceremony. Nope, nada. I was becoming increasingly frustrating dealing with Kaz. He wasn't really helping us at all, and he was granting prayers to our enemies, he didn't understand anything at all about his nature and he only barely remembered any of his past which was what this entire situation rested upon. The information we were uncovering just wasn't enough, it didn't really give us any insight into Kaz's role in Anzja's church, nor how they were using him or how he could be used to assist us.
Maybe it was our fault from the beginning for thinking we had an ace in the hole. It seemed that they didn't really need the gem at all in any way. It was symbolic only; they could still pray to him no matter where the gem was and he could still grant them their prayers. I dropped the topic and instead asked him if anything he read was jogging any more memories?
He said that he was actually starting to remember a few things. He did recognize Azranael, and he remembered his group of friends, and he even remembered some of the events from the day of the battle so long ago. He seemed surprised that Aya was a goddess now (I thought we told him that already? Maybe it had had no meaning when he didn't remember who she was). He thought it was probably Hiroko who imprisoned him, although he couldn't remember why, other than “that crazy, jealous @*%#”. That didn't seem like a good enough reason to go to the trouble of imprisoning someone for eternity, though.
For more detail on the events, he suggested that we head to one of the higher planes and find Vandriel. He would mention that he also thought Rini might still be alive too. After some discussion, we decided to head back to Alestia and pursue a few minor, unrelated things to kind of detox from the unpleasantness of the ceremony, and then later all head up into the upper realms of the celestials in search of Vandriel.
Back in Alestia, we stopped by our mailbox and noticed a letter from Parnth. She was basically agreeing to meet with us in a few days at some Inn in Dimmersdel. We would definitely be there for that meeting.
From there I headed to the temple of Hathandar for a while. Later, Boyce and I decided to attend one of the costume balls we'd been invited to in order to start building up some political connections here locally. I had decided, during all of the recent events, that I would heavily pursue an Electoral position as a sort of a short-term goal and hob-nobbing with these noble snobs would definitely propel me in that direction.
As kind of a longer term item, my eyes strayed to Lower Thalia on the map. I started gathering geographic information on Lower Thalia, as well as information about their economy, government, exports, army (such that they have), etc. Alestia was too entrenched in their style of government which seemed well designed to not be able to get anything at all done, there were so many electors. But at least they seemed to have a competent army and could handle themselves in a fight if need be. Lower Thalia, however, had nothing at all going for it defensively, and seemed largely in need of some help dealing with its overbearing northern neighbor. Maybe I was thinking too highly of myself, but once all this Veris stuff blows over, I started hoping that maybe I could step in and provide a little direction to the scatter-brained country of my birth. Certainly, the connections I make here in Alestia, starting with this costume ball, and many other social occasions to come, will help me in reaching that goal. We'll see…
At the costume ball, I tried to talk to a lot of different people, especially the ones my age that seemed to have a little more ambition than just “I get to inherit mommy/daddy's title and be rich!”. We needed to find people with useful resources to make connections with who wanted to do something more with their lives, or whose desire for power could be otherwise useful for those (Boyce) willing to exploit it. We were able to meet a few people.
I also happened to run into a couple of guys my age I'd talked to quite a bit at the last party we'd attended: Ryncer Hingbury and Andregil Bockermoor. The two were obviously friends and seemed to have some kind of “friendly” competition going. At least, from the last party, they were definitely running a count against each other. It was sort of amusing. Is this what bored nobility does? Heh, anyway, I ran into Regil first, so I decided to go up to him and start up a conversation and head out onto the dance floor.
We picked up basically where we left off last time, conversation loaded with innuendo and implication. Ryn came over to say hello and cut in for a song, and I could see that Ryn was disappointed that Regil had gotten to me first tonite, especially since he (Ryn) had approached me first last time. That's okay, you'll get your turn.
I was able to dance with Ryn through one song before Regil cut back in. The two exchanged looks as he did so, and it seemed like Ryn was conceding defeat for now. That's fine though, I secretly had been a little more interested in Regil since the last party anyway (although I'd never let either of them know that). But the look they exchanged, I had to wonder just how good of friends they were. There was something weird about it that I couldn't quite understand the meaning. It was kind of like a hi-five smirk and something else. Hm. I supposed I would find out eventually.
I spent pretty much the rest of the night Regil, which was enjoyable. He was a fun companion, and despite him not being quite as much “my type” appearance-wise as Ryn, something about his personality was intriguing. I felt pretty comfortable with him.
At some point I noticed Boyce living it up with a group of… well, they weren't “ne'er do wells”, but they were about as close to that as you could get for nobility. The chick sitting on his lap looked particularly… I hate to say “slutty” because I'm sure plenty of people would describe me in that manner, but there was something particularly “dirty” or “unsavory” about her. I don't know. And then there was the poor, cowering waif with them who was obviously uncomfortable.
I could only shake my head at what was almost guaranteed to transpire later that evening. Boyce always did seem to be into the slightly more kinky and weird stuff. The poor girl!
Regil commented on my pointed expression at Boyce, and as we moved away from Boyce on the dance floor I replied, “aaah, Boyce is just being Boyce,” and smiled up at him. Regil obviously had no idea what I was talking about but he glanced over at the people Boyce was with and commented, “…ah. I think I understand.”
From there, nothing else was mentioned of Boyce and we decided to escape away to a private room for a short period of time to hmmm… vigorously take care of some very pressing business.
We returned to the dance floor some 20 minutes later, and I could see Ryn across the floor who looked over as we re-entered, noting our return with a smirk. If Regil noticed his expression, he didn't make any indication to me about it. I may have to get these two alone together some time in the future to see just what exactly is going on here.
Not too much later, Regil and I decided to head out from the party early. We were being silly, chatting, as we walked back to his place, a town house in the nicer part of the city. Earlier, the discussion between us had turned to the fact that I was “just looking for some fun, meaningless sex” of which he had already commented earlier that he was a fan. His reply to this, though, was not what I expected, such as “come get some over here!”, but that he “knew a few people”. This pronouncement intrigued me, and I wondered what exactly he could be talking about (although I had a few guesses). So, in exchange for him introducing me to his “few people”, I would of course let him sample the wares first. I mentioned to him that I was getting the better deal here, and he asked how that was the case. So I mentioned that I would've let sample the wares without him introducing me to anyone, but now that he's agreed to it there's no way I'm letting him get out of it. He chuckled and told me I drove a hard bargain.
And so, I stood before the door to his place as he opened it for me and motioned me in. As soon as the door closed behind us, he closed the space between us in an instant. The whole night was pretty intense, even though his amusing personality left the mood pretty light and airy. Now that I think on it, this is the first time I've ever done this at the other person's place of residence, y'know, where they live, come home and sleep every night (whether or not they're getting laid). Come to think of it, it seems I was often getting laid in Inns in towns I don't live in or in the muck and mud while traveling between towns. This was certainly a nice change. I will definitely take more of this!
Anyway, the shenanigans went on quite far into the night, and we both finally passed out around 4am. I left late morning the next day, and Regil said he'd be in touch.
I headed back to the new house and spent some time with Grey taking the house that Nicele Hames gave us and somewhat reconfiguring it to our needs, as well as fortifying it (sadly, we would probably need it). Trent assisted by generating some magical protections, while Boyce… wait, where is Boyce? Boyce rolled in late afternoon looking a bit tired, but joined in with our antics and provided some Space barriers/wards around the house as needed.
Later in the day I headed by the temple of Hathandar to meditate some more. I think the priests were beginning to recognize me. Well, aside from Ari, who definitely noticed every time I came in when he wasn't tied up with other work.
Speaking of, I gave him my new address while I was at the temple since he wasn't too busy and came by to talk to me (and asked for it). So I shouldn't have been too surprised when he turned up on my doorstep later that evening. I figured he probably just wanted a roll in the hay, but to my surprise he actually prompted me to come out with him on a really long rather romantic sort of date-like-thing. I tried to remember if Akira had ever done that… no, no I don't really think so. Akira and I had always just kinda hung out like friends and then headed off somewhere to screw. The flavor of the whole thing was a good bit different than I was used to, and the thought of it made me uncomfortable.
But date or no date, he did eventually come with me back to the house, and we did settle into my room for a long night of bed exercises.
Only a couple days from when I woke up with the priest of Hathandar curled around me in my own bedroom in my new house would we be meeting Parnth's son and get this alliance ball a' rollin'. I couldn't wait!