Just a heads-up; I'm headed back to Japan for a week for work and so will be travelling from Friday through to the 25th. I'll try to check this as much as possible, but may be 2 or 3 days between my posts.

They're keeping you busy.

Just to preempt the conversation between Yuu and Saya, is there anything the characters are looking to do in the next few days?

The research/investigations you guys wanted to conduct are completed. You don't have any leads on Lasrane, but you suspect he may have avoided capture by the local Chapter of the Order. Unfortunately you also suspect the local Order agents are aware they Zelpuz had interacted with Lasrane and may think he is somehow involved. So Zelpuz's position is a bit precarious there. He does not answer to the local Chapter, but there are superiors here that could cause complications if they're after Zelpuz.

Politically things have been dark since the trouble started a couple weeks back; there's no public information coming out about what is/has happened recently. Given the situation Yuu's parents are in that's not entirely surprising. Yuu does know the Reforgers have an good majority in the Senate, and has identified key members of each of the factions. The news Saya has delivered to Yuu suggests the Reforgers have not been complacent in the Senate and are pushing their agenda, though they end-goal remains nebulous.

Vanyra will be scouting and paying attention to things in the city.  Patrol patterns, military activity, criminal activity avoiding the military activity, how to get in and out of the city, those sorts of things.  She will also keep her senses tuned for any leads on Lasrane or anyone else they may want to talk to or avoid (including the 'agents' from the bar that night).

Well Vanyra could do that within a given neighbourhood, but not across the whole city. Ossylia is a Kingdom of 210 million people, given or take, and the capital of Ossylia has millions of people in it. It would be like somewhat similar to Vancouver, spread out across a large harbor area ringed with mountains, but the mountains would not be as high as Vancouver.

As for ways out of the city, within a couple of days all the gates to the city are re-opened, and the harbor is back to about 66% of typical operations. A new government force, the Ossylian Royal Foreign Trade Corps, has assumed control of all foreign port areas. They are tasked with controlling immigration and importation of goods, and assist treasury officials in the collection of duties and taxes on imports. It's too early to get a sense of how they operate, but from first impressions they appear a much more militaristic organization than the previous mix of agencies controlling such areas.

Okay.  She will do what she can in the timeframe.

Can you remind me what we heard from Lasrane about who the explosives we blew up was for and who it was from?

He stole the Chlornetherium from the Shen Zue, and it was their stuff from the start. The Shen Zue are licensed traders of the stuff for the Kingdom. What they were really going to use it for you never found it, but Lasrane suggested they had nether devices that could alter people's minds slightly, pushing their decisions in certain predisposed directions; opening them up to suggestion as it were. Sort of like low-level brain washing. IF these devices were used around the right people it could then enhance the political power of certain groups, like the Novians with whom the Shen Zue are mostly aligned. Alternatively, they could use the chlornetherium to make a bunch of weapons and ordinance.

Lasrane wasn't planning on using it for anything himself, beside a bargaining chip for information from the Shen Zue. You never found out what that particular information was that he wanted, but given what he said and shared mentally it is likely something to do with the Shen Zue relations with the local chapter of the Order.

Remember chlornetherium is not an explosive; it's only exploded because you shot it with a magical fireball. Chlornetherium is used to create various nether devices, from batteries to cars, to guns. It is condensed nether energy and is not reactive to mundane influences, but when it hit with raw magic energy... BOOM.

Thanks, that cleared some stuff up. I didn't even remember some parts of this, and the others sort of misty.

OK, so I think Zelpuz will start watching the Order headquarters, see who's around, walking in an out and where the local Order Master is going (and potential other high ranking officials that he knows of).

He'll try to describe the two men and any insignia to Yuu as best as he can to see if he knows who or from what group they are.

Ah, OK, well, at least not yet an obvious involvement of the Order in local politics. But no help either. He'll keep lying low and trying to observe the Order and its higher ranking members.

What about Yuu's family? Are they still under arrest?
And we did say the meeting with Lasrane would be a recurring thing. So each week (?) that we said we would meet him, Zelpuz will observe the pub, looking for Lasrane, any other member of the Order, and the people who were there to look out for him. Maybe Vanyra or Yuu can also check out the inside, but Zelpuz will stay low.

Are there any new statues or bizarre new buildings or towers that have gone up over the past few weeks? Something that woulds stand out of the ordinary.

I'll definitely have Yuu check in on his family at some point, good call.

Yuu is going to attempt to contact the closest person up the royal family he can think, that he grew up knowing closely, who he thinks he could contact. I'm not sure who that might, that's a GM discretion thing I think, but it may give Yuu an inside insight.

He's also going to create that listening bug.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:57, Thu 11 Oct 2018.

Quick response to some of the questions posed:

1) No new buildings/towers have gone up in the last week, at least none of note.

2) You have not seen any sign of Lasrane during this time at the meeting place.

3) Yuu can create the listening bug; he'll need to make the necessary rolls as described earlier.

4) For Yuu meeting a member of the royal family please make a Diplomacy check at +2 (due to nobility status) to get the meeting setup. No TN, the number will just determine how prioritized your meeting will be.

4) 16 on the diplomacy roll

Zelpuz will ask Yuu if there are any notes of members of the Order attending any of the town council meetings (or whatever they use here).
Besides that, let's see what Yuu's parents have to say.

For the listening bugs did you want 2km range or 8km? If 2km you'll need a Knowledge: Technology and Craft: Electronics roll with a TN of 14 for both. For the 8km version, same rolls but TN is 15.

As to Zelpuz's question there has been no documented attendance of Senate sessions by members of the Order of Ashes of late. IF you want to look back through the entire history of the Senate there will likely be a couple of instances, many years previous.

Just so we know where we are temporally, it's been just over a week since the encounter at the tavern when you were looking for Lasrane and the Order members showed up. Since then you've learned:

1) The Order has been visited by two well-dressed non-Mespah carrying a probable gift of bottles of some sort.

2) The check points around the city have gone away and the military presence with it. The town guard has resumed their normal patrols.

3) The new customs and immigration agency is setting up it's domain in the docks area and garnering a mixed response from the people there.

4) Yuu's meeting with the Countess is in 3 days from now.

5) Yuu has created half a dozen listening devices (assuming he makes the rolls)

6) It does not appear that Yuu's family compound is under guard any more. But you've yet to actually enter.

So what are you guys doing now?

OK, everything is back to normal, my work here is done ... see you.

Or maybe not yet. From the images that Zelpuz saw when Lasrane shared his memories (?) that implicated the Order Master, were there any locations, faces, contacts or other details that would give Zelpuz a clue where else he could look.

Look for what, Lasrane? There are a couple of memories with landmarks or appearances that Zelpuz could probably track down with enough time, assuming they are in Ossylia.

For Lasrane and for places that he observed some perceived wrong behavior from the Order, maybe I can check those out to see if I find any evidence myself. Who was mostly involved, just the Order Master?

Yes, and in a couple of the memories another guy that bears a striking similarity to one of the persons Zelpuz saw enter the Chapter House a few days back.

Probably too late to follow that guy. Any connection to what his role is? What did he do in the memories? Any hint on how I could track him down?

You have no idea who the guy is. Lasrane's memories suggest him to be someone withing the Shen Zue organization, but Lasrane was unable to find out who exactly. As for tracking him down the only obvious was would be to just repeat what you did before and stakeout the Chapter House; he may show up again.

Then that's the plan, I suggest we'll keep contact with some walkie talkies, maybe we can get some with a bit wider range (not sure what the specs where for what we had in the pub), so we can call each other if someone needs help/support/more manpower etc.