Games, all sorts

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We arrived at the city of Arkenfels, population of about 100-200 thousand, located in the Duchy of Pal'parntha in Upper Thalia.

We got a room at the Crisp Pickle Inn, and then went to a different Inn called the Screaming Baby Inn in order to start reaching our feelers out into the underworld of Arkenfels. Pretty quickly Boyce got in good with the bar wench and arranged to get under her skirt and later meet her brother, who happened to be a guy who knew people. The brother, Arim Pelleson, arrived a couple hours later, and Boyce laid out the sitch to him, and got the ball rolling with that.

After a few divinations later, it was determined the Arim angle was both trustworthy and capable of turning up info that might lead us to Duchess Parnth. We agreed to meet him the next day at about the same time, and from there we split into groups to each pursue this issue from other angles. I went to do a walk through the wealthy area of town, slowly scanning each home for Minds and Life, see if there was an excessive number of people in any house, or suspicious behavior of people in the house, or perhaps sub-basements holding people who might be on the run from perhaps Veris's clan.

Well, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. So barring that, I headed to the library and researched Parnth and her close relatives, and any close friends she might have in this city. I came up with a list of three, and headed over to their houses in town. Well, they seemed all but abandoned of people, so that was kind of a dead-end.

I headed back to the bar to meet up with the boys. They had some sort of ridic plan to rob some guy, for what benefit I couldn't really see clearly. I declined to be involved in that, and instead headed over to a bar in the wealthier part of town to hang out, talk to people, and see if I could find any tidbits, or perhaps a good lay. Which I did (the latter), in a youngish blond merchant guy whom I called “Jackson”. It wasn't his real name to be sure, but he didn't mind and that was just perfect for me.

Anyways, meeting up later, the boys seemed to have had success in their thievery, apparently stealing some crates full of decorative soaps and towels you weren't suppose to actually use. What. The. *bleep* Anyway, so we waited until the next day to meet back up with Arim and hopefully get some useful information.

The good news was that he had info for us. The bad news was that we'd have to break the contact out of a jail build just for holding and interrogating Manifests. Alrighty, I was up for a good fight I suppose. We paid Arim for his assistance, and went on our way.

We scoped the Manifest-holding-facility out. It was on a hill outside of town with a deadman's zone and significant magical wards around it. Oh my, this would be fun. I did some recon and got them the lay of the place and a good entry point in order to spring Parnth's niece, Folcina Strenauri, at the very least. They were, however, holding two other prisoners, so if at all possible, we'd spring those two too.

The boys contrived some convoluted plan in order to gain entry into the building. I had no idea how this plot was to work, I just told them to point me at a door and I'd run through. Grey did some tunneling and Boyce did some Gate-opening, and both Boyce and I jumped through. I guess Grey and Trent would join us later.

Boyce and I landed in the hallway just outside of the cell holding Folcina. Already being buffed up to the max, I grabbed the portal, Boyce opened the door and I charged in at the Manifest guarding Folcina, dropping the portal on the floor inside of the room with us. In a few scant seconds, Boyce and I made minced meat of him. Grey and Trent appeared and ran into the hallway to bust out the other prisoners. Boyce took the keys the shredded Manifest had been carrying and went to unchain Folcina, who was unconscious, while I stood in the doorway as two other brutes tried to crash our little party.

I exchanged blows with the guy in the doorway, keeping him busy while Boyce unchained Folcina. After only a few moments, Boyce appeared at my side and assisted me in taking out these two thugs in the doorway. Unfortunately, one of them was capable of closing Boyce's portal, which really sucked. At this point our best option was to just wipe out everyone in the place and escape out the front door.

Grey and Trent seemed to finish up with their guards at about the same time as we did. I revived the prisoners that needed reviving and healed them enough to get them functional on their own again. We decided to quickly raid the bodies of the defeated manifests of their much nicer, magical gear, including one chainmail bikini, and then we all took off out the front door and back into the tunnel. We quickly ran down it, all seven of us, then once arriving at a semi-safe location, Boyce quickly got to work creating us a gate out of here. We ended up gating to several different places before finally settling in Endelbar to talk.

Expectedly, Folcina didn't seem to trust us at all. We offered to drop her off anywhere she wanted, in exchange that she deliver a letter to Duchess Parnth. She agreed to do so, and we explained after she inquired that we sought contact with Parnth because we believed that we all had a common goal, enemy, and could be of significant use to each other. She seemed to understand that even if she wasn't sure she trusted us. Well whatever, just deliver the letter we gave to you girl, and let Parnth worry about whether or not she is going to trust us.

And so, we dropped her and the two other manifests being held in the prison, one of Parnth's Lieutenants named Danath, and some thuggish guy who had dreams of grandeur, at a place of Folcina's choosing: in Upper Thalia, near Dimmersdel, at the farm of the Gravaths'. Hmm, speaking of, I wonder how Vrad and his family was doing in Runearch?