Chapter XLIX
in which the Silver Foxes meet a helpful dragon and an unhelpful dragon
The Pope's Blessing
The gang continue to loiter while waiting for Father Benjamin, losing Glad for a minute who gets busy whoring out his image and position for quick cash. To prove he's Sentinel of Chracio, he teleports himself and the disbelieving merchant to the pit, scaring the shit out of the poor soul. Eventually, Benjamin shows up. Red and Haas rush first into the crowd where they find him doing his duties in a professional, but somewhat "over it" manner. Frax and Glad wait for him to approach and Frax takes on a crowd of his own as he grows 10 feet tall to make himself more visible to Father Benjamin. This works, but doesn't stop Benjamin from doing his thing, so Glad dragon shouts when Red points him out. They set up a Sentinel-Archon meeting for later. While they wait, they notice an ailing old women ask for medical attention from Benjamin only to get rejected. Red volunteers help, however he finds the old lady very ungrateful after he heals her and suggests cutting back on the tobacco ... which was the cause of her illness. Maus attempts to use emotion magic to amplify her shame, but the old lady is pretty shameless. Glad decides to stalk her for the next hour and prevent, though magic means, any attempt she makes to smoke.
At their meeting in the rather spartan Temple, the Foxes share everything that happened between themselves in the Heretic and the source of trouble its been for them and the bad news it could mean for the world at large. When they reveal that they are technically allied with the Heretic in order to cease kidnappings in Renamore, Haas and Glad almost get in a fight with some of Benjamin's knights. They resent the implication that they've done nothing when they've tried what they can while feeling politically tied. Benjamin doesn't have complete control of the church. The High Priest in Renamore, Methias, enjoys a lot of political power in that region, is friendly with the Heretic, and is likely next in line to become the head of the Temple. Which means that Benjamin is an obvious assassination target for the Heretic and overt moves against the Heretic could hasten his demise. The Father reveals that when the Heretic, or Jacob as he was known then, was ousted from the Temple, it led to a very bloody confrontation in which lives were lost. And the Heretic is exponentially more powerful now than he was then. Benjamin lobbied hard for Felspar's intervention, hence the recent seige they laid on Attria, but the ill-timed Western invasion put a quick end to the seige as Felspar redirected its forces south.
The Foxes suggest that they mop up Renamore and force the Heretic's hand, but Benjamin is not sure they can stop the Heretic without the help of someone like Okmark or Cadence or Cyax. The Foxes then suggest getting blessings from the First and Xisben and helping Felspar end the invasion to the South as quickly as possible. When Benjamin learns about the Westerner's proficiency in suppression and blood magic, he's persuaded to lend his abilities in the fight there as well, bolstering everyone's innate protection against suppression. When he learns about Kalmer's return, he tells the group about ascendance. Everyone realizes pretty quickly that the Heretic is likely delaying everyone to take advantage of Kalmer's weakness in transit and ascend. An even more powerful Heretic would be harder to take down, so the Foxes decide that there next stop after Xisben is the location of Kalmer to route out the Heretic. Imbri's informed of all of this and heads there with some backup. The Foxes get their intel on Kalmer and a blessing from the First, and head on their way. Red stays behind to reveal his half-Westerner heritage to Father Benjamin and get advice on what to do in the war. Benjamin entreats him not to think of all Westerners as inherently evil and gives him a sigil to look out for ... something that may offer him guidance or perspective.
Records of Loss
The Silver Foxes spend their remaining time at the First searching the archives of the pillar's images, helped by a scribe, Jareth. He helps answer Haas's queries about images of Mercayan and Shul from right before the war, at the start of the invasion, when the pillar was taken, and when the pillar fell. The group learns:
* The First flashed red when Mercayen fell
* Shul and King Cyax were surprisingly calm in their confrontation
* Before the war, their was an unusual image of Mercayan building a castle only for Shul to show up and smash it later
* Westerner fleets show up pretty often on the First, not always as a prelude to some continental skirmish, and sometimes fighting amongst themselves
Glad also traded blood with a spirit in the library to scry the location of any books containing useful info about Carseca. Between this and other queries, they also learned that:
* Dionastra and Shul have been painted together on *friendly* terms
* Oshim used some sort of blood magic ritual to call out to Shul and attune without having to visit his pillar
* A being of light (Malokai) was depicted coming from the rift
* A similar, but different colored, being of light was depicted as a baby some 30 years ago
The Moving Picture Show
Glad gets curious about how the images are shown and tries imposing his own will on the pillar to have the First show his past battle against Kaetro in the dreamworld. While he clearly sees the pillar respond, no one else can see what he sees, except Maus who uses telepathy to confirm that Glad believes he's seeing what he claims to see. The Weaver mentions to Maus that there are actually multiple images being displayed on the pillar and he finds it curious that the Silver Foxes only see the one. Haas is more successful. By asking, she's able to get the First to display a small square segment depicting the first Archon of Vulsh crawling out of the Clutch of Vulsh. Red is able, with Haas' help, to see a future image ... the next the First will display ... of Kalmer returned and flying over Attrian cities and country side. Glad buys a map to crossreference with the vision and they narrow down an area to check out, where they believe Kalmer will land. They share this information with Imbri.
Before they return to the ship, they encounter a man, Schyler, who pries them about their scrying. Red instantly gives the game away and admits that they asked the First to reveal the location of a secret pillar for their mission. Schyler is impressed but dismayed to learn the method only works if you are attuned to the First. The gang presses him about his motivations and they seem innocuous enough, but on the airship, Maus is surprised to learn that his mind magic is completely rebuffed by Schyler, an expert in recondite. Likewise, Haas can't identify the scent of his pillar or view him in the spirit world. Red too notices that Schyler can see through whatever illusion he'd mastered to appear human, something Haas later warns him about. Glad, however, seems satisfied after Skylar survives a tests of his battle magics, although he does order Ryla to keep an eye on the newcomer. And Frax doesn't have much of an opinion on their newcomer.
Elsewhere on the ship, Tilly begins prepping a strength potion with a rabid/frenzy side effect.
A Liar in the Crew and A Flower in the Field
While Schyler teaches Red the finer points of divination by divining the ship, Haas stalks him in order to gain some clue to his identity. Likewise, Maus tries to learn more through the dreaming but hits a dead end when the Weaver points out that Schy is protected. Glad works on giving the ship small kinetic boosts and mentions to the group, after Schy assists him, that Schy is very talented in staging and conveyance as well. Meanwhile, Frax busies himself with building a pretty impressive garden on the deck of the airship. Later that night, in his own quarters, Glad continues his study into blood magic and finds an old god, Og, listed in the Sage's Tome that he attempts to commune with. Since Og's followers are mentioned as using bones in rituals, Glad grinds up Tusker Tusks and tries a makeshift blood magic ritual without any immediate results. The next day, he finds a flower glowing in the ritual vessel of his blood he left out. He brings it to the group but no one can identify it. Haas can only offer it seems marshlike, nontoxic, and inedible. Frax gets weird feelings from the flower. Schy is a unnerved/curious because he can't identify what magical effect is within the leaf. Glad decides to brew tea from the leaf and consume it. The next day, another flower appears on the deck in Frax's garden. Frax isolates it and becomes increasingly disturbed by the plant, which his people can't identify either. In the end, Frax dismantles the entire garden in fear that the unnatural plant will continue to spread. The next morning, no more flowers appear and Glad tells the group he was able to commune with the spirit he called out to. He leaves it at that.
Haas has her own private mission. She commissions an object from Akani that allows her to dispel whatever static effect Schy is using to hide himself in the spirit world. With it, she's able to see his face and recognize a look of hunger about him. She also smells the scent of his pillar, which is Kalmer mixed with Emeri. Upset, he returns her to the real world and demands to know what she's doing. After assuring him that she doesn't know how the rest of the group will react to the revelation, he resigns himself to being outed. The Foxes aren't really surprised at the revelation and let him stay on the ship, after some convincing that he's not the Heretic. He still distrusts their motives but reveals that Kalmer has landed.
When they have their audience with the dragon, Frax takes a disliking to how reticent and stingy Kalmer is with his help. Haas and Glad offer offerings to him and receive a way to communicate with Kalmer. He refers to Haas as successor and her gift, which she considers a high honor, confuses her. Glad is unable to get any blessing or definitive offer of help from Kalmer, who is content to sit on the sidelines. He does say he'll offer some help if they can prove themselves in their campaign against the Westerners. Afterwards, he allows them to visit his pillar. He teleports the Foxes there. They meet with his masked priests and investigate the table/pillar. In exchange, Glad let's the Kalmer priests visit the pit of Chracio. Before they teleport back to the ship, Glad leaves a magically imbued gem on the altar. They then make a quick jaunt back to the map room which Schy helps fill out, revealing that Kalmer controls most of Attria aside from Paraxos. He also reveals that the sigils of Baishu they've been drawing have some innate power. Glad and Haas rip their drawings from their notebooks and burn the pages. At the day's end, Haas updates Cadence with what they've learned. Likewise, Glad passes on what he's learned to Imbri, and one of the imbued gems so his party can track the signal.
A Clockwork Dragon
On their way to Brenthia, the Foxes decide to drop Schyler off at the First. Haas has a bad feeling about him that's verified by Cadence and her Archon, so she calls a group meeting. The party is mostly split on the decision, but Frax and Glad who vote to keep him on are mostly ambivalent and admit he seems suspiciously dangerous. They break the news to Schy and leave him with a journeybook. Then they check the ship for traps or spying magic. They're pretty thorough, but the only things they discover are 1) a message left for Haas in the spirit world, 2) a wraith doing laps in Schy's room 3) an occult presence. Haas reads the message as something evil and figures out what seemed wrong about Schy's spiritual presence ... it's lacking in depth / devotion. Maus observers the wraith for a while. Eventually it leaves peacefully. Glad discovers, with the Weaver's help, that the occult presence is his own connection to Og and that Og is trading in an unfamiliar currency ... something not the magic / quasith.
In Brenthia, they find multiple Xisben clones directing its followers as they work on new construction around the mountain. Before their audience with the dragon, Glad pokes and prods a copy of Xisben, trying to figure out how the clones work. In their conversation, Xisben lays out the mutual agreed upon contract governing how the dragons interfere in the world and expands upon his dislike of how brazenly Shul is working against this idea. He also mentions that he's worried about how the sides in the war will shape up. Kalmer is unlikely to ally with his brother being kind of an evil asshole. Chracio is likely to outright break one of these rules and change the way the game is played ... possibly for the worse. Ytura has a strong position right now and remains unaligned. Vulsh hasn't committed himself to a path yet. And he isn't whether Esseldi will join their side, remain neutral, or join Shul in a bid for survival. Nor does he know what side Vormyll will take. He also thinks the silver dragons may be targeted specifically because their domain of travel is advantageous.
All of this means that the Silver Foxes, an eclectic group in the midst of all this dragon drama, is in a unique position to sway the course of events. Glad will have to temper Chracio's restless instincts to intervene, which he might do by attacking Westerners in Kingsport or figuring out a plan to have a Focus user destroy the pillar of Shul near the Volcano (and maybe set that too off just for kicks). Haas seems to have Vulsh's ear and wants to unite her people, but Xisben believes, despite her objections, that her curiosity about the deeper workings of the pillars and dragons may test her devotion and ruin her for the Archon-ship. Constrastingly, Maus is very interested in the ascension process. But he has no idea himself about where Vormyll will side. Frax has a very strong repulsion towards Shul and conquests and clearly sides with the silver dragons, but he lacks the confidence that what he's relayed will lead his people to similarly side with the silver dragons.
Aside from the table setting, there's talk of Theruk having always been planet side. And a mention of what to do with Maus' Artison Works order. Though they haven't received any proper blessings, Glad did happily receive a boost to his calm to help mitigate the frenzy effects of the strength potion Tilly concocted.