Gathering Information

Details
Session Date	Mar 7 2021
Seam Dates	Apr 28 - May 4 5941

Journey to Gathernotch

The 5 day journey to Gathernotch passed without incident, allowing Caely to train further in lock-picking, Victory to train herself to use her disguise kit, and Biri to train in stealth.

The party used the time to quiz Bobby Fisher about the history of Gathernotch and the structure of the Khro Ardol. They learned of the power of the Triumvirate, and the make up of the current 8th Triumvirate, as well as learning that once elected, each member of the Triumvirate serves for life. During these discussions, Bobby once again expressed his discomfort with the use of the modrons, and specifically the way they were controlled by one member of the Triumvirate at any one time.

He told them as much as he could of the three members of the 8th Triumvirate:

• Ranmur Karaad (8th): Khro Ardol aligned but with recent Kirkja Karaad family history, a spiritual leader of the Khro Ardol and a charismatic politician, possibly with a ruthless streak.
• Thoryl Bands (7th and 8th): Khro Ardol through and through, having been born of parents new to the Seam. Seen as a commoner before his election, the first solely Khro Ardol member of any Triumvirate. A war hero and master crafter.
• Kathselle Ithrun (6th, 7th and 8th): First Triumvirate member to have been born Khro Ardol but with Khro Ithrun ancestry. A war hero, great warrior and leader, but a canny and clever economist as well. Responsible for much of the expansion of Gathernotch.

Arrival

Once arrived in Gathernotch the party separated to gather information about the state of affairs in the city. While Biri remained on the ship, fully aware of her very noticeable colouring, Victory headed off to Brurro de Tansi’s house to see if there were any changes there. Meanwhile Caely went to try and find her old (former?) friend Hannah.

Empty Houses and Emptiness

At the former modron factory in the basement of de Tansi’s house, Victory found that there was no longer any evidence of modron production, with all the factory equipment having been moved. However, the expanded space which had served as his factory remained, now with an extra hole! Where the back wall had been, a large hole had been created, which appeared to look out onto nothingness – it was clear that wherever the internal factory space existed it was not in the same location as the house, as Gathernotch was entirely missing from the view. In examining this hole Victory found that the room itself, or specifically the doorway into it seemed to be formed through conjuration magic. Before returning to The Situation, Victory visited Claudia’s former rooms, but found that the spy had done a very efficient job of cleaning out the entire apartment, leaving not a single item behind.

When Victory later mentioned the hole in the wall at De Tansi’s house to Bobby he admitted that it was an early attempt to move the factory elements into a new location, before they realised that the factory space did not exactly line up with Gathernotch, and that it would therefore be impossible to move things except through the main doorway. He believes that the Hallowdawn would be needed to close up the doorway between the Seam and the conjuration-created space beyond, but pointed out that the relations between the Hallowdawn and Khro Ardol weren’t currently good enough to make that request.

At the Pub

With a certain amount of good fortune Caely managed to find Hannah, and her brother Al, relaxing after their day of work. Disguised as a dwarf she bought them drinks and settled down to sit with them before revealing her true identity. Both Hannah and Al seem uncertain about seeing her, but gave her time to talk. Once she mentioned the modrons, they opened up a little, telling her that they were all around the city, including being integrated with the police. The gem was controlled by one member of the Triumvirate at a time, and was rotated between them. The talk in the city is that the modrons will be allowed, and encouraged to do the hard, dirty and dangerous jobs saving the dwarves from having to do them. Caely decided to tell them of the incident in Gathernotch, which shocked Hannah and drew an unsurprised reaction from Al. He foresaw problems coming when the modrons were integrated into the police force and wanted to know what Caely has planned.

Caely explained that she wasn’t yet sure, as she didn’t want to raise problems like they did last time, so she was still trying to obtain information. Hence her visit to Hannah and Al, they were local and knew what was going on. She also wanted to check in and see how they were after the last time. Caely also admitted that she wanted to know if this was the right thing to be doing, which Al suggested it probably was. He also told her of a new factory build by modrons in a matter of days at the top of the city, which they believed to be also the site where modrons were being made. The work force is a mixture of dwarves to do the lifting and modrons to do the complex work.

Aware that the talk was borderline treasonous for Al and Hannah Caely left them with information about the new ship, and moved on to safer topics of conversation.

Meanwhile back on the ship Biri observed that The Situation, though not drawing attention from the officials thanks to Bobby’s quick visit to the Harbourmaster earlier, was drawing some attention from passers-by due to its distinctive and unusual style. The party each observed that there were some modrons around and about the city, primarily tridrones with the police patrols.

The Amoruk Council Chamber

The following day, Bobby offered to take them all to the Amoruk, where a public meeting of the Triumvirate would be taking place at 10am. With Biri disguised as a white dragonborn, Caely as a dwarf, and Victory invisible, the four entered the Fifth Floor chamber of the Amoruk and watched as the Triumvirate met and discussed political matters in the city. The meeting was well attended by dwarves from the general population, a trend which Bobby noted had come about as a result of increased interest in politics due to the modrons.

This was the party’s first view of the Triumvirate. They noticed that Ranmur wore not just his Khro Ardol necklace but also one displaying the clan sign for Kirkja Karaad, whilst Kathselle wore a sword at her hip, indicating her clan history of Khro Ithrun. Thoryl meanwhile wore a handaxe at his belt.

The Triumvirate discussed the exponential increase in modron production, and debated the importance of outfitting the police with modrons, or using units to further increase production, or using them in other areas of the city to improve quality of life within Gathernotch. They also discussed the possibility of creating another factory. There was also discussion of the renewal of their agreement with Ziplock, increasing tariffs on exports to Velour, and fire safety within the city. At no point did they acknowledge or interact with the audience watching from the circular benches above and around their council pit.

The meeting lasted around an hour and a half, during which time Victory had to renew her invisibility. In this time no-one on the benches spoke. Once the Triumvirate left however mutterings and conversations did break out and one noticeable group of 3 elderly dwarves were clearly less happy about the situation than the rest of the audience. Bobby identified them as probably belonging to Khro Ithrun and suggests that their age means that they may well remember the outcome of internal fighting within the clan and within the Seam at large, or at least have a far greater awareness of what it meant for the dwarves.

The Factory

The party decided that the factory was a place of interest so took a walk, still disguised/invisible, to the top of Gathernotch to examine it more closely. It became clear quite quickly though that it was very well laid out to avoid easy break-ins. With a chain link fence, 20ft perimeter and a flat sheet-metal building. There was little to avail oneself of if attempting to get in without permission. All these elements also made it stand out significantly from the surrounding buildings.

Around the factory there was a large amount of work going on, with people moving in and out of the building, and regular tram deliveries of metal. Caely approached some of the workers leaving to find out more, and met a dwarf named Zara. Unfortunately for Caely, Zara pointed her “new to the Seam” dwarf self to the Amoruk to register herself, and take the clan Creed in order to become a Khro Ardol dwarf and get a work permit, rather than providing her with any useful information.

Back to the Ship

On returning to the ship, with more information but not many more ideas, the party did manage to glean a little more information from Bobby, who told them that when he had been summoned to a private meeting with the Triumvirate following Biri and Victory’s jailbreak it had been on the 4th floor of the Amoruk. He also explained that whilst Khro Ardol has its own traditions and culture it is normal for dwarves to maintain some of their own traditions from the now extinct clans. This he argued was acceptable so long as they stuck to the Creed. Not knowing the Creed the party asked more and were told that the Khro Ardol Creed was as follows and was the core element to being a clan member.

I will protect the clan with Iron.
I will protect the clan with Blood.
I will serve no other, nor allow another to break service.
Your blood is mine, is yours, is Iron.

Bobby suggests that to be a politician one has to have a certain streak to them, and that though the Triumvirate seem to be good people at heart, they may be willing to be ruthless in order to achieve their aims. He is most worried about internal conflict within the Khro Ardol, as he believes that that would be more likely than external conflict with the rest of the Seam.

When asked about more of the history of the Khro Ardol and their preceding clans he pointed the party in the direction of the Grand Library. The only other information he provides is that to date, no member of the Triumvirate has been removed from their position/unelected.

Cloud Surfing

Caely and Biri decided to go to the pub, both to legitimise their trading visit to the city, and to hear any rumours about the modrons. Though successful in the first they didn’t hear anything particularly negative about the modrons to aid their mission.

At the same time, Victory took herself off to the factory once again, in the form of a gas cloud to see what else she could find out. Inside she discovered that there were lines and lines of the same factory set up as had previously existed in De Tansi’s factory, and that full production seemed to be continuing. The majority of modrons in the factory appeared to be monodrones constructing more machines, with duo-drones supervising the work.

Having spotted offices above the factory floor Victory went to investigate, looking for the gem, or information about its whereabouts. However, on entering the space through a vent she was spotted in her gaseous form, raising the alarm about a gas leak. When her form didn’t react as expected to being wafted at the the dwarves realised that she might not just be gas and sent out an intruder alarm. This just gave her time to see that inside the safe there were many documents, but with no time to read them, she fled into the night and back to The Situation. Here she lied to the party about what had happened, not telling them where she had been.

The following day, the party opted to continue their research, going to the Grand Library for information, this time with Victory as a black tiefling. Here they each borrowed a huge tome ‘summary’ of the history of the Khro Ardol, and began to read.