With the meeting done, Kaldalis escorted Brother Gnider to the docks to see him off. Despite his revelation that Kaldalis and the people of Cotanaku were not monsters to be feared, the priest still seemed uncomfortable to be surrounded by PCs. Once that neighborly act was taken care of, however, Kaldalis had to track down his friends. It was possible that they could put their heads together and find a way to turn this latest turn of events into the victory Kaldalis needed.

It was just about noon now, and so Kaldalis headed towards the cafeteria to find them. If they weren’t there now, he knew that he could get lunch and they’d likely be along before he finished eating.

That was unnecessary, though. The whole gang was assembled in the cafeteria, a little battered and muddied by whatever they’d gotten up to that morning, but in visibly high spirits. Dalgaard and a few of their crew were seated at the same table, and Reno was animatedly recounting some story of the morning’s adventures, much to Courbois’s visible chagrin. Dalgaard still seemed a little uncomfortable with being social, but everyone was smiling and laughing.

Kaldalis felt a stab of jealousy. He was out here trying to save the world, and here they were just goofing off and having fun.

Where were they while he was breaking through Brother Gnider’s prejudice?

Where were they while he was dealing with the Contender at yesterday’s meeting?

What were they doing to try and break through to the raid so that they could return this world to normal?

The feeling was fleeting, however. Kaldalis shrugged it off with a forced smile. He was glad his friends were having fun. What was the point in saving a world if people weren’t allowed to have lives worth living in it?

“Good news, everyone!” Kaldalis announced as he approached the table, once Reno’s story was finished.

Balrim made a show of groaning, but was still smiling. Everyone else similarly looked happy to see him.

“Where’ve you been?” Myrin asked. “We’ve been all over the jungle today without you.”

“Yeah, we couldn’t find you this morning,” Ess added, “is everything alright?”

“Oh yeah, everything’s great!” Kaldalis said, giving his biggest, fakest smile. “Everything’s fucked!”

Kaldalis cast a quick glance at Dalgaard. He wasn’t sure if he should ask them to leave or not before he started sharing how his morning had gone, but ultimately, they had a s much a right as anyone to be a part of this. It wasn’t fair to expect them to turn around into an ally if Kaldalis wasn’t going to trust them with the full picture.

After joining his friends at the table and beckoning them in close so that his words wouldn’t get spread across the whole damned camp, he started from the beginning. He filled them in on the details of the meeting and the Contender’s interference. They started to ask questions, but Dalgaard silenced them with a practiced gesture, asking Kaldalis to continue - as the story was obviously not over yet. Obliging, he told them about Brother Gnider’s confrontation, and the subsequent trip through the dungeon. That opened up even more questions, but he just pressed on, finally telling them about the meeting, and the priest’s confession that the whole investigation was a sham.

Even though it was obvious that there would be more questions - and questions unanswered from earlier parts of the tale - a stunned hush fell over the group at that.

“So anyway, what did you guys do this morning?” Kaldalis asked facetiously.

“Holy shit, Kal,” Reno said, breaking the silence. “Are you actually cursed? Is there a curse at work here?”

“I’m just playing the cards I’m dealt here,” Kaldalis said defensively. “It’s not my fault that everything coming my way keeps recontextualizing everything that came before!”

“Maybe we can work with this,” Balrim said, face screwed up in a grimace. “I’d already considered that the guard guy from the raid might be ambitious enough to wrestle control over the church forces here from the Contender. But I thought it was going to be a challenge if he was just some asshole who hates us. If he’s on our side…?”

“Then we can actually ask him if that’s how the chain of command works,” Myrin finished. “Instead of just jumping to conclusions and praying that things work out in our favor.”

Balrim gave an agitated gesture dismissing the comment. Kaldalis figured that this was the continuation of a conversation they’d already had.

“There’s a lot of routes to go from here,” Dalgaard said. “But you’ve taken the most important step. Brother Gnider’s information - little as it may be so far - can become the most valuable asset you have in the coming days.”

“I just wish the routes weren’t so long,” Kaldalis grumbled. “I’m on a tight schedule right now.”

“And I wish we could help you more,” Ess said, reaching across the table to put a hand on his shoulder. “It sounds like the battlefield for this is the meeting rooms, though. I bet they don’t want all of us piling in there with you.”

“I think people have been giving me the tools I need there,” Kaldalis said, thinking of what both Brother Gnider and Foturns had told him. “I think I even know how to use them. All I need is to hit Cerh and Jetmorpan with an even bigger existential threat than what the Contender has them hooked on.”

Of course, there was only one threat big enough.

To those guys, the Infernal Horde was just a bunch of monsters. Just more of those near-harmless sheep-things kept in pens outside of Baimer for baby adventurers to farm for power - though admittedly on a much larger scale. The Adventurers League - and the immortal troublemakers like Garyung, Kaldalis, and his friends - was something new, and represented a potential imbalance of the world order that had already put them on top. PCs were a threat to Zaran power in a way that no group of monsters could be.

But the PCs were a terrestrial threat, to the eyes of the council. Something of this world. Cerh and Jetmorpan might not know what Kaldalis and Garyung were exactly, but they thought they had a solid idea. They understood the facts of their existence.

Monsoon, though? The interdimensional entity that caused the calamity? An alien force that was trying to extract wealth from their world by any means possible - only until more efficient means could be devised? A profit-focused corporation on another planet that had wiped out the Lataxinans, and would - and could - wipe out any other civilization that had threatened them?

That might do.

Kaldalis had the information and had the idea.

He just needed the chance to wield them.

“The only thing missing is opportunity,” Kaldalis said. “Garyung and I - and whoever else - with streams off, in the room with the Zaran leadership.”

“Alright,” Courbois said, clapping her hands. She knew better than to ask what Kaldalis’s plan was in the cafeteria, in front of everyone with their streams on. Just the same, she still found a question to ask that Kaldalis was hoping nobody would say. “So how do we give you that opportunity?”

There was only one way. Obviously, Garyung could go through official channels and try to establish a protocol for calling a meeting of the council of councils. It would be a long and involved process - likely riddled with interference from the Contender - but eventually they would have to let them speak.

Or, the Infernal Horde could attack. They could inflict massive losses on Panbu and Kayore and force them to entertain the idea that Garyung and Kaldalis weren’t the biggest threat on this island.

Of course, those massive losses would be people’s lives.

Such devastation was not Kaldalis’s intention.

“There has to be a way,” Kaldalis said quietly, causing everyone to lean in close even though he was talking more to himself than them. “There has to be a way to get that meeting without-”

Unscheduled Arrivals II

Repel the siege! 0/3

Kaldalis glared at the quest text that suddenly appeared on the right side of his vision. Shortly afterwards, alarm bells began to ring from the city walls.

“Fuck.”