An adventuring party recruited from Osirion teleports into Azir on the 8th of Desnus. Rahadoum's recruiting contact in Osirion wrote ahead to note they were expected. Couple of guys he's known a long time - a wizard, a ranger - and a new guy, sorcerer, probably to replace the cleric they usually travel with. They spend two days in Azir getting oriented and head out to the front. The ranger wears an unusually high quality amulet of Nondetection; the sorcerer wears a headband for intelligence, which is a bit unusual as sorcerers usually don't need it to cast, but some variants do; they are otherwise unremarkable. Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, no reading, which could mean neutral or 'hiding it'. They work quickly and effectively, manage resources reasonably well, get recommended to higher-ups for a closer look on that account.
:I think he'd want to talk to Starwind. But - maybe stick nearby, in case he's hysterical again and we need you to put him back asleep? He's more likely to stay that way with Starwind nearby, I think:
Wow an entire population mind controlled by their god is a mess on a scale not too dissimilar from Cheliax. He doesn't say that, obviously.
:Should we give the diplomatic party an update? I don't, er, really know what to say yet...:
:I'm a bit confused - I'd be surprised if it were that strongly affecting for everyone all the time, the Tayledras mostly don't talk to Her and seem like normal people. It could be the pact plus - maybe Break Enchantment fixed whatever She did to them when they spoke? When that happened to me I was a mess after having it undone:
:Oh, that makes sense. Presumably most of them haven't under Her influence done things they regret away from Her influence, either.:
:I hope not. They're mostly lovely people:
He looks sadly at Starwind and Moondance. :Gods. I feel terrible. What a disaster. Moondance is - I don't know if he can be okay, after this. he already gets depressed sometimes because he killed someone by accident as a teenager and I think he still felt like he hadn't made it up to the world, and now...:
Vanyel has no idea what to say to that so he just leans against Fazil's shoulder, blinking away tears.
Melody comes in. She gives Fazil a narrow-eyed look; there's both gratitude and a flicker of annoyance in her expression. :You did some sort of magic to break mind-affecting spells? Can you tell me anything about how it generally works...?:
:Break Enchantment is for dispelling magic but specifically mind-altering magic, and it can get stuff that's too powerful for Dispel Magic to get anywhere with. It removes the mind-affecting magic, if it does anything at all.:
:I see: Her eyes go out of focus for a moment, playing over them. :Well, it got whatever distortion She'd put in to block their memories of talking to Her, and - I suspect other things but it'll take me a while to figure it out. It didn't get Nayoki's set-command on them not to run away, which is good, that could've been a mess:
:Goodness, that says such interesting things about how all of this might work. Anyway. I think I had better spend some time with them today and see if there's anything I can do to make this easier on them. I think they're a little overwhelmed by the number of people in here right now, so...could we maybe have fewer people? Van, I'll Mindspeak you right away if either of them wants you here, same to Savil: