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Dunmari Frontier - Session 126

The Magistros: in which the party negotiates over chalyte

Featuring: Delwath, Kenzo, Wellby
In Taelgar: Jun 28, 1749 DR to Jun 29, 1749 DR
On Earth: Monday Jun 09, 2025
Location: Chardon

The companions navigate fractured politics, aid traumatized officials, and strike a pivotal bargain to bring a new source of chalyte under the control of the Magistros of Chardon.

Session Info

Summary

  • The Dunmar Fellowship reunites after a night apart; they discusses chalyte politics and next steps.
  • Delwath’s divinations and scryings uncover clues about the current situation and identify several former members of the Chamber of Stamps, their minds broken from years of living under Fausto’s control.
  • Kenzo and Delwath comfort and question Gaspar, a shattered former official, discovering the name Veldari and that bribery alongside mind-magic fueled Fausto’s secret control over the chalyte trade.
  • Wellby gathers intelligence from dockworkers, navy personnel, and commoners, confirming admiration for the Magistros amidst grumbling about public finances and taxes.
  • During their audience with Mitus Verina Auratan, the ruler of the Chardonian Empire, the party accepts the Magistros’ thanks for killed Fausto and ending the threat of The Cleansed; they earn his wary trust by sharing their knowledge of Fausto’s crimes and the suffering he left behind.
  • Negotiations with the Magistros reveal two ways to shatter the chalyte monopoly: expose the bribery and corruption of the Chalyte Oligarchs of Chardon via clandestine infiltration, or secure a new source of chalyte under the Magistros’s direct control in the Chataan Mountains.
  • The party resolves to travel to the Chataan Mountains and secure a new source of chalyte, aiming to empower Chardon’s workers and shift the city’s power balance in the process.

Timeline

Narrative

After a night apart, Delwath, Kenzo, and Wellby reunite for breakfast at The Barking Seal a quiet sailors’ tavern. Kenzo and Delwath, having slept aboard the Auratan’s Pride, spent time discussing chalyte politics and local power structures with Tiberius, a notable Windcaller, trusted confidante of the Magistros, and critic of the Chalyte Oligarchs of Chardon, who he believes are dangerously motivated by profit over safety. While not unsympathetic to the working class, his concerns were primarily about competence. Wellby, meanwhile, stayed at The Smiling Crab, a nearby halfling inn. He brings word that the halfling community, though uneasy, is largely untouched by recent unrest, which remains concentrated north of the river. Their breakfast is briefly interrupted by the simlacrum Seeker 3, who departs on an urgent task for Seeker (“Seeker Prime”) and reminds them to seek magical fire protection for the eventual journey to the Elemental Plane of Fire to rescue Frankar.

The conversation turns to the current state of affairs in Chardon, and what to do next. It seems incoming shipments of chalyte have ceased, and bureaucrats who once regulated trade have vanished. Fausto, it seems had targeted the key members of the Chamber of Stamps who controlled the chalyte monopoly (but not members of the oligarch families), and with these key bureaucrats now vanished the entire system was in danger of crumbling. Though no one is certain whether the rioting workers of the Eightfold Flame could outlast the oligarchs and refinery owners. To confirm key details, Delwath asked the tanshi, learning that upriver trade was largely halted at the command of the merchants who did not want to send raw ore into chaos; the chalyte reserves in the city would last some time but eventually public works would begin to collapse without new supply; and that none of the bureaucrats once controlled by Fausto both wanted and were able to return to their duties. As their late breakfast concluded, the party decided to split their efforts: Wellby would pursue word among the docks for insight into the Magistros, while Kenzo and Delwath would seek information about the chalyte bureaucrats of the Chamber of Stamps.

Delwath began by scrying names from Kenzo’s list of officials controlled by Fausto, made when Kenzo briefly possessed the Crown of Purity. The first target, Amelia, is a mid-level official: she is rocking back and forth muttering a Dwarven prayer under her breath in an attic, and seems to be in bad shape. A flash of foresight from Elmerca reveals the next target, the most senior member of the chalyte board, would defeat the scry. Gaspar, the last target and another member of the chalyte board, is seen in his estate, tended by a serving woman, clearly not in full control of his faculties.

Deciding to see what they can learn by speaking to Gaspar, Delwath and Kenzo head to his estate on the slopes of Mount Nera, part of the Nera Domains, after a few hours gathering information to find out where he lives. They convince the wary butler they bring aid, and inside they find Gaspar frail and withdrawn, his mind clouded and hands trembling. Kenzo discreetly examined his aura, sensing a frightened inner consciousness shielded by layers of confusion and denial. Delwath began a cautious conversation and requested permission to examine Gaspar’s thoughts. Sensing their goodwill, Gaspar did not resist, but Delwath quickly realized that any intrusive probing caused Gaspar’s fear to intensify. With Kenzo focused on calming the scared fragment of Gaspar’s mind, Gaspar seemed to indicate he wanted to try to write something, attempting in fits and starts to communicate. Although he scrawled only gibberish at first, eventually—spurred by gentle encouragement and the mention of Fausto’s fall—he managed to write a single word: “Veldari,” underlined with trembling effort. Delwath, reading his surface thoughts, gleaned that Fausto’s power had extended not just through mind control but also through bribery, implicating Chardon’s oligarchic families, and perhaps particularly the Veldari Family. Spent and emotional, Gaspar finally slumped, as his servant urged the visitors to let him rest.

Wellby spent the bulk of the afternoon combing the bustling docks and taverns of Chardon, intent on gathering sailors’ views of the Magistros as well as any useful rumors about the city’s governance. He spoke with navy crew, merchants, and dockworkers, moving easily among them. The naval personnel, in particular, revered the Magistros as a hero—citing his daring feats at sea, including reputed early adventures against piracy and monstrous threats near the Apporian Peninsula. Their admiration seemed genuine, rooted in stories of his time as a young sailor and later as an admiral who led them to decisive victories. This reputation had cemented his authority among the Windcallers and much of the populace. Among merchants, Wellby heard more mixed sentiments. While some grumbled over taxes and tariffs, most acknowledged the Magistros’s efforts to improve the city’s welfare, even if some suspected some desire for fame and glory behind his actions. The consensus, even among cynics, was that his policies, though often costly, had curbed piracy and improved public health.

Returning from the Nera Domains via the Chalyte Levels, Kenzo gathered information from the city’s working-class populace, learning that the four great oligarch families were widely resented, though none stood out as especially better or worse. The Patelios Family had a reputation for unsafe refineries, while the Auratan Family and the Caloren Family were simply seen as detached and indifferent. In recent years, chalyte-powered improvements brought clean water and magical conveniences to poorer districts inside the city walls, fostering a sense of pride—but those living outside the walls, on land largely owned by the oligarchs, saw little benefit and were far more hostile. As dusk fell, the party reconvened at The Barking Seal. Each received a magical summons from Tiberius, instructing them to present themselves at the Imperial Palace the next morning. They dined and discussed plans, prepared to face the city’s complex politics in the day ahead.

The next morning, the party gathered at the gates of the Imperial Palace in Chardon, surrendering their weapons and magical implements to the cautious palace guards. Inside, they passed through opulent halls before entering the Magistros’s private chamber—a stark, sunlit room with simple furnishings and a solitary, youthful man awaiting them. After brief courtesies, the group explained their involvement in the recent troubles besetting the city. They described Fausto’s use of powerful magic to corrupt the chalyte trade and create magical copies of their likenesses, using these dopplergangers to commit crimes for which they had initially been blamed. Kenzo, a native of Chardon, spoke with particular emotion about their efforts to clear their names and bring Fausto, The Cleansed, and Apollyon to justice, receiving grateful thanks from the Magistros, who admitted the city, too, had been deceived.

The Magistros updated them on the ongoing devastation: a spreading outbreak of lycanthropy and the difficult healing of those whose minds had been controlled by Fausto, including the general Marius Cusico, who Delwath had contacted. The Magistros thankd the party for their concern and aid, and the party shared a list of the victims they said they had recovered from Fausto’s possessions (and actually had gained when Kenzo briefly controlled the Crown of Purity), offering it as a resource to aid the city’s priests in their work. The party agreed to meet with the city’s healers before departing, offering their knowledge and assistance in the ongoing recovery.

The conversation turned to broader concerns—the recent defeat of Apollyon and ancient histories tied to Drankor and the Cleansed. The party recounted what they knew, observing the Magistros’s genuine horror at the beliefs of The Cleansed, and sadness at the fate of Drankor, tinged by nostalgia for a lost golden age rather than sympathy for its darker ambitions in its later years under Apollyon’s ruled.

With mutual trust and grudging respect established, the conversation turned to the crisis surrounding the chalyte trade. Kenzo, who grew up in the Chalyte Levels slums on the North Bank, questioned the Magistros’ stance on the trade, its impact on the people, and the growing unrest among workers. The Magistros admitted the complexity: chalyte, essential to the city’s survival, was monopolized by four powerful families, whose influence prevented reform without risking civil war or the lost of chalyte and the collapse of the city which depended on its magic. The Magistros spoke of the Curia of 42, an elective council with limited power but that still controlled the sale of the chartered monopolies, including chalyte, and his suspicion of ongoing corruption and bribery keeping the oligarchs in control of the monopoly.

Willing to contemplate radical solutions to break the status quo, the Magistros spoke of two potential paths forward to reduce, or eliminate, the influence of the oligarchs: procure incontrovertible evidence of bribery against one family, forcing that family to take the fall and using the scandal to impose conditions on the chalyte monopoly, but leaving the others in charge, or discover a new, independent chalyte source allowing the Magistros to directly control the flow of chalyte personally. As the party leaned towards the more radical solution, he described an abandoned prospect in the Chataan Mountains, which had proved too difficult to claim a generation ago due to giants wielding chalyte magic, as a possible new chalyte source. , where tales spoke of giants wielding chelite magic. In response to Kenzo’s insistence on a better life for the workers of the North Bank, the Magistros offered to gift Kenzo all the land expropriated from the oligarchs should the party secure a safe and lasting new chalyte supply for the Empire.

We end as the party departs theImperial Palace, with orders to keep their journey secret, and a promise that the Magistros would deliver information to aid on their quest shortly.