Pathfinder Interlude - Catch Up

Ok, where were we with the Pathfinder Interlude? Travelled from Absalom, through Galt (where a Duke was mysteriously assassinated), messed around in Mivon, into Brevoy (via Drelev's Folly) and on to New Stetvon, wrangled invitations to the weddi... wait a sec, I didn't get that far? Oh goodness, I really am behind, and the next session is tomorrow!

New Stetvon was cold and miserable and Jvala hated it. The party used their usual "Hello, we're professional nosy persons" trick (ie, "We're here on official Pathfinder business, please assist us") to get appointments with as many members of the Court as possible. Some sounded quite fond of the new Earls and others were more honest. General consensus was that the royal wedding had been a good event, with some 'off-record' mutterings of a waste of a money. It was felt that the new queen wasn't taking her queenly duties seriously enough (and the bit of me that is Svetlana was heart-broken - Svetlana cares very much for her fellow countrymen subjects. It never occurred to her that avoiding public appearances might be taken as stand-offish or irresponsible). The Earl Alexei seemed better liked but not universally trusted. Less comment on Baron Costello. Various people knew about the cat in its small form (as far as I remember, still no mention of Aaron). They did get to see the original poem written by Earl Alexei for Svetlana's wedding.

Court Magister Malliard spoke to the party - they particularly noticed a fine pair of swords strapped to his hip and the familiar way he spoke about Queen Svetlana. The king and queen were not in residence - she'd come back for a break from the Crusades for them to have a brief honeymoon. They'd be back for the wedding of Chester Goldhawk. Malliard introduced the party and they wrangled invitations (Jvala was very impressed with Chester's great axe).

The wedding was impressive - they wore their best outfits, Jvala was delighted with the warmth generated in the great hall but Zabeel was utterly overwhelmed by the amount of people. Most crowded round Alexei but Kieran Costello had his own crowd too. The party could see that certain people in the room: our primary characters, Malliard and Ezekiel had an aura of power about them. Ezekiel invited them to his room for tea and was as sinister and cryptic as ever. Explained that normally he'd have to kill them for noticing the power of the others but that greater forces were clearly at work so instead he convinced Sam to break into Svetlana's room to steal a stone.

The stone is one Svetlana has kept though she doesn't remember picking it up. It fits neatly into her palm and lines up with the scar that she's had about as long. She keeps it in a drawer with other knicknacks and souvenirs she's picked up since leaving her village. Sam grabbed it and got out just as Mr Tiddles arrived with a fireball.

Ezekiel mentioned a tomb found in Vanguard, but that this party wouldn't find it... Jvala took that as a challenge. He gave several areas to investigate: his hometown, Restov, someone called Jin.

They left New Stetvon soon after and headed to Restov. There, Sam Spade again assisted thenm in tracking down 'Jin' - a young orphan who'd died under mysterious circumstances. Still not entirely clear what that has to do with the Barons. Also found the house of Anna Hencheck, complete with a mysterious empty cellar and a scabbard on the wall that matched Malliard's blades.

They headed south and accidentally unleashed an ancient vampire on the populace... 

There were rumours of someone who'd come up from the direction of Vanguard, raving about 'red eyes'. There was a concern that this may be related to the tomb Ezekiel had mentioned so they investigated. The man had been committed and was still there, decades later. On arrival, the place was strange. The staff were absent-minded and seemed unaware. The man convinced them to lead him out in return for some scrappy information and virgins started dying soon after. 

Ooops.

They did try to make it right, but couldn't track him down so left Swash on the trail and moved on.

Druid earth-shape spelunking found the outside of the tomb, but the powerful protections in place flung Tanna from the earth and she refused to continue, to Jvala's annoyance.

Onwards to the Dawnlands, where they met Svetlana's mum and went on the trail of bandits. Didn't find anything useful, but a corpse that (Sam Spade said) had been decapitated with a vorpal dagger. Also entered the tomb of Oleg Leveton's ancestor, where they found a damaged blade that the local blacksmith wouldn't touch. Sam found a strange naked human that he decided to keep as a pet. He's been given the name 'Hu', has no memory prior to waking up in a scorched clearing and appears impervious to magic.

Leaving the Dawnlands behind, they headed to Pitax to get to the bottom of the connection between the Dawnlands, Mivon and Pitax. Managed to get hired on to Lord Asher's guard for the journey and, when attacked (by vampires and their minions), managed to keep all the shiny loot.

Pitax was like Mivon but more so. Found a very nice magic shop with whom they arranged a good deal for the loot. They also discussed the vorpal dagger and received a shortlist of people capable of making such a thing - but why would they put such a powerful enchantment on a dagger? They didn't believe such a weapon existed because they were sure they would have heard of it.

Jvala made appointments to see as many people as soon as possible, wanting to get out of this technological (and cold) city. Zabeel was looking at guns and I forget what the others were up to.

And that's (I believe) where we left it last time...