Lich and Powerful

The Underdark Mistake
After the departure of Morag, the gang decide to head back to the inn for a post-demilich drink. Here they bump into Ekizi, a half-orc hunter-gatherer from Hespor, in town to trade.

After a few glasses of bread-drink, they explain the situation, and she agrees to guide them through the tunnels below the Kanda Mountains into Hespor. They make short work of the flail snails which have emerged into the demilich's cavern in their absence, and make their way down into the maze-like underdark. The party almost dies after bumping into a couple of bone devils guarding an altar with an odd sigil upon it, but eventually Ekizi succeeds in guiding them through to Hespor, and a small farming town called Glevam, where they are largely ignored by the populace. This is confusing, until Ekizi explains the social strata of Hespor

The Secret Sisters
Having delivered the party to Hespor, Ekizi takes her payment and leaves. Jolas, after the party has discussed heritage and family, decides to go home and make another attempt at being a good father to Anthony.

The rest of the party, realising it is Battle Day, seek out a shrine so that Roak may make an offering to Jiion. Offerings done, they head to the local store to stock up and work out what to do next. First though, Chris messages his mother in order to find out what caste his family is, and learns that Tortoiseshell's real name is Tacita III of House Concicatrix, named for her grandmother who was a general in Tra Hunto's army. Chris is a Lord.

Finding that one of the women running the store speaks Eastern Common, they purchase supplies and an Orcish phrasebook so that they can try to learn the local language, or at least be able to communicate. They also learn that the brother of the storekeeper, Vulcan, disappeared when a group called the "Secret Sisters" passed through town, and promise to keep an eye out for clues as to his location. They also learn that these Sisters worship ancient gods, and so decide to head to Domum Deorum - the centre of religion in Hespor and one of its two cities - to gather information, hoping that info on Uanora can also be found there.

On the way, however, they are ambushed by two veiled orcs and one in armour. They are easily vanquished, but one carries the symbol from the shrine, and the other two are oddly saxifrage (a kind of steppe flower) scented.

Later they encounter more veiled and scented figures, dead for some time, at a spring, protected by a corpse flower, which often grows on the graves of necromancers. In one of their tents, they discover a book that contains a sort of account of the veiled people's activites. Under Glevam:

Souls Taken: 3 Souls Converted: 1 Souls Restored: 0

Domum Deorum
When they eventually arrived at Domum Deorum, the group stumbled upon the funeral of Princess Varinia, a grand-daughter of Tra Hunto. Oddly, she had died of old age. Here they encountered Faenia, a priest of Atia who wished to help them with their quest against the Slaughter Sage and the Secret Sisters. They met her behind the temple after the funeral and agreed to let her join the group. She was aware of a house used by the Sisters as a meeting place, and, with the help of a very enthusiastic dog which Namira named Dogtective, they found the saxifrage scented building, and set up shop on the roof of an opposite home - in exchange for praying to Jiion to keep the owner's brother in the Abyss - in order to wait for the building to empty out.

When it did, they made their way inside and discovered that some of the sisters were indeed aligned with the Slaughter Sage, and that there was some connection with Oppida Prima, and possibly with Tra Hunto herself.

They determined to head to the capital immediately.

Oppida Prima
On the outskirts of the city, the party encountered a small huddle of orcs arguing about taking down the Tra, and learned that she is indeed in league with a powerful lich. They gained lodgings at a local B&B and resolved to investigate further. This investigation involved putting on a semi-improvised play based on the Twin Waters classic "The Council is Rubbish", and starting a riot which allowed them to discover a portal in the walls of Tra Hunto's palace, which could only be used with special metal bracelets worn by the guards.

They also tracked the insurgent group to the woods outside the city and met their leader, Diana, who is hoping to install herself as leader once Hunto has been defeated.

A plan was made with Diana's group to enter the castle in secret while the group caused a distraction, so that the party could assassinate Tra Hunto. This was achieved - the Tra being half-dead and bedbound, artifically kept alive through Uanora's intervention. Jiion sent a vision to Roak of the whereabouts of the lich, and - after a semi-controlled explosion in the palace kitchens - a staircase down to her lair was revealed.

At last the party had their quarry cornered, and slaughtered the lich with efficiency.

With Uanora removed, Diana was crowned, with her marriage to Chris soon to follow.