Good!Party: Retaking Caristhium

This session was played in a campsite by a lake, so I didn't take notes the way I usually do. Some of you may be relieved by that, since it means that this will be a rather abbreviated account of the session. Sorry and/or you're welcome, as you prefer.

We're back to splitting the party as needed, though this is a bit awkward without Azrael to provide some of the teleportation spells we're going to need. Still, Leira can teleport groups of us, and Eva can carry people around at a fairly frightening rate of speed, and Ruin can make decent time just using repeated Dimension Door effects. We can't be everywhere at once, but we can be very mobile. 

For our first actions, Tavros (half-dragon paladin), Martini (Grey Elf assassin), and Marshall (Human Cleric) decide to try to liberate the city of Caristhium from the elvish radicals. This will take some of the pressure off the Temple of Amun; possibly get Tavros' mother - - Amelia Fountain -- resurrected, which would place a powerful mage on our side; and give us the beginnings of a base of operations. It also gives us a chance to start putting the word out...

...About Tavros. 

Tavros, you see, is the last surviving Fontaine, and as such the likeliest heir to the throne of Sol Povos -- if enough of Sol Povos remains to salvage. Tavros is, of course, perfectly appalled by the prospect... but he's willing to take up the crown and the scepter if there's nobody else (and apparently there isn't). 

There are three lords remaining in Caristhium, one of whom is currently under siege by the forces of the radical elves. Their commander is both meticulous and ambitious, so our best bet is to move quickly and take him down before he has a chance to figure out how to take us down. 

Marshall goes to talk to one lord, who was apparently a minor lord whose family was raised to the nobility only a few generations back. They are willing to help, and would support a Fontaine heir, but in return they would like to see their station raised further and their holdings increased. Marshall intimates that this would certainly be possible. 

Martini slips past the besieging forces and visits the second lord. He maintains that it was his loyalty to the Fontaines that brought him to be under siege; more than anything, he needs the siege broken or -- at the very least -- some way to get supplies into his household so that they can maintain their defenses. Martini has foreseen part of this, and has brought one of our bags of holding so that she can distribute fresh food and rations. This has made her startlingly popular. She can't end the siege herself, of course, but she promises that the elvish radical leader will fall shortly. He promises to await the outcome.

Tavros goes to speak with the third noble house in person. It's patriarch is an older man, said to have been closely involved in the local government before the city fell. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes clear that he's already cut a deal with the elvish radical, and in any case the price of his loyalty is to have other to noble houses destroyed. Tavros tries to explain that if the House will support him as he retakes Sol Povos, there would be rewards available well beyond the scope of local politics in Caristhium... but the patriarch refuses to hear it, and in any case it looks like his die is damned well cast already. Tavros extracts himself (without violence) and heads back to the temple. 

The next morning, Tavros returns to Caristhium and challenges the radical elf leader to a duel. The fellow flees, but one of his lieutenants sets fires across the city. Tavros, enraged, refuses to kill her and has her taken prisoner; Martini and Ruin can talk to her later. (He has not really focused on the part where Martini's idea of "talking to her" involves torture.) 

Unfortunately, we're quickly able to determine that the tarred head on the spike above the gates does not belong to his mother. Which means locating the elf -- which we do -- defeating him -- which we also do -- and reclaiming the body of Amelia Fontaine. There's going to be some cleanup, but the occupiers are now thoroughly disrupted and Tavros has taken his first steps towards assuming the mantle of the King in the East. 

He still flinches whenever someone calls him Highness, though.