A Bargain with Moria Dawnwhisper

Session Summary: 06/09/2024

Ahhhh, NEGOTIATIONS in the Fey realm are conducted at KNIFE'S EDGE! Moria Dawnwhisper, Countess of the Court of Twilight's Embrace, appeared before the heroes in the Glade's twilight spaces without warning and without hostile intent, which was itself more alarming than a direct attack would have been. She had done them the courtesy of not disguising the fact that she had been monitoring their progress, and she had done herself the courtesy of approaching only when the ratio of outcomes favored the conversation she wanted to have.

She wanted to discuss Geist. Specifically, the geas that bound Geist der Feen and the vessel he currently occupied, and what could be renegotiated regarding both. Geist had gone very still in Kiren's pack in the way he went still when he was processing something he had strong feelings about and had not yet decided whether to share them.

The heroes negotiated with Moria with the wariness of people who have spent enough time in proximity to Fey politics to understand that every word in a conversation like this is potentially a contract clause and that apparent generosity is a form of investment. Moria was skilled, her propositions layered with multiple interpretations, each slightly more advantageous than the last until the one that was actually what she wanted was presented as the obvious solution to what had already been agreed.

They caught it. They countered. The back-and-forth that followed was, by Geist's later grudging assessment, conducted with reasonable sophistication for mortals of their experience level. They got the BETTER of her in the first bargain: Geist's geas was loosened to a degree that gave him meaningfully more autonomy, and a new vessel was acquired that suited him better than a skull. Moria received something she valued in exchange. Both parties departed with what they had come for, and the lingering tension between Moria and Geist was present enough to taste but not so present as to have collapsed into open conflict.

What precisely had passed between them before the heroes' time was left unspoken. Geist did not offer an explanation and no one pushed for one. Some histories are weight-bearing walls in the structure of a person's present, and pulling them out to examine them serves no one!