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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.
"And...we have to assume that if the easiest way for them to corner Leareth - who saved an entire country from Hell, and was helping them at the time - had been here instead of in Osirion, they'd have done that."
Is he silent because he's about to get mad and order someone arrested about it, or is he silent because his Companion just had a magically enforced tantrum, or...
Still not on fire, he recites to himself in his head.
The King takes a deep breath and lets it out.
"I - guess - we have to take the sensible precautions," he says finally. "And, you're right, if they'd done it in the Palace here..." Shudder. "It'd've been even worse than the Highjorune trap-spell. Gods. I hate everything about this, Van. They were our friends. I can't believe..."
"I know. It - really hurts. But they undeniably did it, and Leareth was - well, you can say what you like about his past here, but he's more than proven who he is, to me, and I want him as our ally and I'm furious that She tried to - to sabotage that - Leareth could've blamed me for inviting them to the Worldwound, a lot more than he has."
"And Savil." Another deep breath. "I - need some time to think, please. Thank you for doing damage control, and for bringing this to my attention."
"The pharaoh wanted to send a diplomatic party," Vanyel reminds him. "Should I, er, wait to Gate them over?"
Absentminded handwave. "Please. I'll - send a note, or something."
"All right. Thank you, Randi." Vanyel pauses, and reaches to squeeze the King's shoulder briefly.
Shavri, who's been completely silent and white-faced the entire time, makes eye contact with him. :Thank you, Van: She includes Fazil too. :I - we should talk, after, I'll come find you:
:I know: He pauses once they're outside. :'Fandes? What's going on with–:
:Randi: Yfandes sends crisply, :had apparently not gotten a report from Savil with NEARLY the same emphasis you just put on the Star-Eyed being opposed to Valdemar's interests in addition to being Leareth's enemy. I'm really concerned that - somehow that particular element just didn't get discussed...:
:Did Savil not notice that their method could easily have caused a war with us, if everyone in the palace had been eaten and we didn't know what was going on...:
:I don't know! I think - it's a lot on Savil, and maybe expecting her to be thinking clearly about all the political ramifications of it was too much. Understanding diplomatic relations, er, isn't one of her strengths, and - I think it's impossible for her to be objective here, given how close she was with them: Pause. :But...I am concerned more than that is going on here:
:......I'm not sure: There is suddenly a LOT of worry in Yfandes' mindvoice. :My...guess...is that She can't modify our beliefs directly, but - we make a lot of decisions from Foresight, actually, we have gut feelings about things that our Heralds generally put a lot of faith in. And that's linked closely enough to the Web that it might be trivial for Her to nudge. For example, it sounds like Sondra felt doomy about the diplomatic consequences for Valdemar of Karse finding out that we were high-handed with punishing allies from elsewhere under the laws that are specifically meant to apply to Heralds. And - that's not wrong, but it's interesting that it was a major emphasis, given that the other more immediate consequences seem a lot more serious?:
:I think we have to keep in mind that Foresight is a thing here, unlike in Golarion, and - I suspect that means gods have disproportionately more power, and - can affect things in ways that don't look like interventions unless you're Leareth and really paranoid about it:
Mental sigh.
:Randi's going to go unload all his feelings about this on Sondra, which has me concerned that she's going to implode the way I did. I think I'd better go hover nearby. You all can maybe go sort out a guest room and wait?:
