Torches Session 38, Festival and a Mine fight

Kormatin resolved himself to inflict damage upon House Selwyth in order to drive a wedge between them and their allies in House Gorisonad.  

Preparation

  Kormatin and company flew north to King's Lake   Did some shopping and errands in King's Lake. Kormatin left the bulk of his loose coins with the Fumayan Masks after being warned about the dangers of carrying too many coins.   Kormatin met with Spymaster Ralnor to get some information about House Selwyth's holding. Kormatin purchased a custom jewelry replica of his magical poison detection jewelry....without the magic.   Kormatin asked the Fumayan Children for two very specific specialized. He wanted a deadly but slow acting poison that would allow and a target to both drink from the same bottle but give Kormatin enough time to sneak away and purify himself.   Even more difficult, he wanted a reversible poison that could cloud over an eye to justify an eye patch and allow him to hide his heterochromia.   Kormatin also touched base with his Fumayan Keeper homies in King's Lake.   Kormatin and company swung back south to pick up Aleesia into the party and briefly check in with the king who generously offered Kormatin and Aleesia a house as a wedding present.  

The Festival

  Kormatin, now with a party of five rather than five, arrived in Stagdrift Hills County without incident a few days before the end of years Miners Appreciation Festival. The county capital of Ironcliff was closing down the mines for an end of the year pre-Nike festival.   The mining town of Ironcliff was a major sausage-fest with a very high population of unmarried young males. The women of his party got hit on a lot. This was not a big deal for Aleesia and Brigid getting hit on by humans was something Ragani was not used to.   The women tried to flirt for information with minimal success, but Kormatin had better luck quietly listening and inserting himself into manly conversations.   Over the festival, the party found out the following information.   -In general the miners had a low opinion of House Selwyth but they had a high opinion of the local count and the counts regents and advisors. Mine foreman and other low level officials all seem to be appointed based on merit rather than nepotism as is often the case with Swynfaredian counts. And from what Kormatin and allies could see, he does seem to be a man of the people and a reasonably nice guy.   -There is a clear section of the iron mine that miners were not allowed to go in. A talking flesh golem warded stray miners away and no miner decided to FAFO.   -Ghost activity has been unpredictable in the local area, and most/all spirit loas have been driven away by this or at were at least opting to keep a low profile.   -The local miners do not generally believe the propaganda that Fumaya provoked the current war. They do beileve the propaganda that Swynfaredia has the clear upper hand an easy victory is coming. The hard core war hawks have mostly signed up for the army which is allegedly paying fairly well.   -With a fair few miners serving as soldiers at the same time the demand for metal is increasing, some kobold miners have been introduced provisionally. The existing human miners are not all happy about this, but there hasn't been any serious problems yet.   -The head of the mines is a Man-dwarf named Luzic nicknamed "Luzic the ogre". A derogatory nickname that Luzic opted to lean into. As far as Kormatin can tell, he is a man-dwarf. Kormatin has never met a man-dwarf but he has met a lot of ogres. He's pretty sure he's not an ogre, and he has a Dwarven accent.  

The Iron Mine

  Kormatin and company sneaked into the iron mine shortly before the Nike. With the help of invisibility, they avoided Luzic and a similarly sized cloaked figured closing the mine, and saying that they doubt anyone would enter the mine while it was closed, but anyone who didn't would be killed.   Kormatin and company waited for the large people to put some distance between them and then entered the forbidden section of the mind making short work of the flesh golem designed to warn people off. Then awoken a bunch of undead and we went dice-less while Kormatin and company set up a choke point and ground through dozens of varied undead, many of them focused on making area of effect attacks more than direct melee attacks.   With the healing magic and various buffs, the undead were not a serious lethal threat but they were able to ground down mana, quintessence, healing potions and Willpower.   Kormatin opted to wait about a day to see if there was a response. Dozens of armed men on horses rode in with more than a few sorcerers among them. Kormatin's party's magic auras were detected and they bolted. But they found trouble finding an inn to take them and had to play cat and mouse with the Selwyth forces pursuing them. Not getting any true rest and spending most of the Nike on the run until they gave their pursuers the slip and found an inn willing to take them in.   After recuperating, the party made it safely to the County Alasend and was able to present themselves as respectable Swynfaredians to a roadside inn.   Session ends.