meanwhile1

Events of Alturiak 7 (Supplemental)
Lia Stepped from her tent to greet the morning. The sun was out, a fresh change from the downpours of the Shaaran winter. She could almost hear the temple bells of Lathander ringing like they would back in Waterdeep.

Saker stood next to her, his little claws against his hips. He looked up at her. "Why is that lady watching us?" "Where?" Lia asked. "There, up in the sky" he reached out a claw. Apparently, it was invisible. Lia cast the divination to see. Still nothing, except a cloud of swirling lights that might have been lantern archons. She went inside and memorized true seeing.

"They're still there," Saker said. He'd watched while she sat at her desk. Clear as day, there was a fantastically beautiful woman, hovering in the sky, just below the cloud deck. A terribly svelte man-wizard flew next to her in Waterdeep high fashion. Lia consulted her training and conluded the wizard was cloaked ethereally, and the woman was under the weavings of superior invisibility.

She cloaked herself in regular, more mortal invisibility, and flew upward. The wizard flew downward in a dive, bolting for her. "You were seen by a Goristro on the north wall. I must ask you to turn back or I will have to banish you to somewhere **very** far away.  Apologies.  We will also be in another form if you seek us again, and you will likely not see us."

Lia turned back. Perhaps her new friend Marcus would've had better luck.

Lia resolved to meet and greet the heads of each of the tribes. Best to get the worst out of the way first; she sent a page to Sibilante requesting an audience. It was a regular schmooze-fest, with Sibilante's thinly-veiled hostility mitigated only by an invisible assassin that Lia noticed just before he would've stabbed her. He instead capered out of the room after making eye contact with the young mage. Sibilante apologized for the misundertanding, explained he had 'pressing business,' and it was over.
 * Making the Rounds**

Lia visited each of the Lion and Cheetah Tribes and had an interesting time with each. The cheetah chief was wild shaped into a cheetah and refused to de-shape for the visit, and licked himself, smiled, and gave lia the cat-stare, all interepreted by his advisors into worthy conversation.

The lions had a young chief, who was playing it by ear between several advisors that he'd retained from his father, one of whom was the powerful Gabriél de Ascension.

Lia stopped over at the Syl-Pasha's tent, who was in an unusually gloomy mood. Sibilanté had demanded 2.5% of the tax revenue of the reconstituted Shaarmid in exchange for his cooperation in the siege. The Syl-pasha, of course, was unwilling to give anything more than 0.2%, so the discussion ended. Lia arrived just in time to watch Sibilanté storm out.

Later in the day, the tribes met and agreed to begin digging a preliminary trench line, and gather wood for a siege train, given the predicament of the dwarves. Little beyond this logistical agreement was achieved, as the tribesmen bickered back and forth while Lia could only look on, despite their polite ackknowledgements of her position. Lia garnered a meeting with the sparse Eagle Tribe contingent after the council, where she was surprised by an interesting proposal...