Blood on Broad Street
Summary
GM: Stephen
Season: Autumn 818 WK
Night: Tuesdays, starting 7pm on 14th March
Location: New Windsor
Level: Low-Medium
- Party
- Horton - Human Mind Mage - Errol - Party Leader
- Kharmul - Human Celestial (Shadow) - ChrisC
- Anooke - Hobbit Ice Mage with experience of murder, played by Michael Haycock
- Jaycey - Halfling Illusionist - Anne - Mil Sci
- Sylvestor - Elf Water Mage - Justis - Scribe
- Cipher - Dwarf Bunny Rune Mage - Beth
- Pierre the Halfling - Halfling Illusionist - Ian
- Employer & Mission
- A low-profile group is required to discreetly solve a murder in Seagate on behalf of a relative.
Scribe Notes
TIMELINE
26th - Eurin and Boli were having drinks and a few games of cards before Boli had to go off to a "deal". Lost his Soul this day. Lady Chattlesworth lost gem.
27th - Boli was chasing after someone with his newest greatest idea. Someone who could make him rich. Boli no longer had a soul. Cast_no_stone began questioning people about the missing gem.
28th - Eurin and Boli were out drinking in several taverns, Boli payed for drinks that night.
29th - Boli was supposed to have been acting in a show. Boli was murdered that morning
30th - There was again meant to be a show. Eurin learnt about his death on this day
Duesday
Sylvestor here, with the job of scribe this season. Today the party, which consisted of three Halflings, a Dwarf, A Human and me, an Elf. Sat in the guild meeting room waiting for our employer, a Human non-mage by the name of Aryan. The human seemed to be carrying far more weapons than a normal person, and his cape flapping in a mysterious wind which is only there for him.
My first impression was that this was a very powerful man. Which means that he has powerful allies and enemies... The latter turns out may be truer than we expected.
Aryan introduces himself and then tells us all about what he wishes us to do. Aryan informs us that he recently found out his nephew was in town... After his nephew was murdered. Guild security essentially told him that he was not allowed to go rampaging through the streets, murdering everyone until the murderer, was also dead.
Aryan reluctantly agreed to send a party of adventurers to discreetly investigate the death. Other important details to be noted included the soul was missing. The body had been dead for two days. Oh, and the guards had ruled it as a mugging gone wrong.
Payment was included of 50,000sp for finding out who the murderer was and generally more info. Another 50,000 SP for bringing them to justice. Aryan didn't tell us what "justice" meant only that justice could be done as we see fit.
We then decided that Horton, our resident Human (and mind mage) would be party leader.
Anooke - "You're a mind mage you're going to be telling us what to do anyway."
I became scribe, and we set Jaycey as primary mil-sci, with Pierre as our secondary. Now onto those on the adventure. We had Anooke, a Halfling Ice Mage, Pierre the Halfling, an Illusionist, Horton our Human Mind Mage, next up is Cipher, a bunny Rune Mage- who has two years' worth of experience and training provided by the guild. Then there is Jaycey, my friend Jaycey who shared my first adventure with me. She is an Illusionist. So, all up we have three natural thie.... I mean Halflings with the Halfling racial trait, two of which are illusionists. Inconspicuous group. Yeah, we got that covered.
We decided on investigating the body of Boliver, who was found in the early morning, dead on Broad Street, outside the Broad Street Theatre, by lead actress Anatalia, a 17-18-year-old Human Female from Brandenburg. We found that Boliver had a gash across his neck. Very professionally done. Right-handed killer, with a very sharp blade. Bruised arms showed some form of self-defense. No valuables were found on his possession.
Dragon company which is the day watch in Old Seagate reported the murder as a mugging gone wrong. Aryan has had disputes with Dragon Company in the past resulting in the Lieutenant of Dragon Company and Aryan having a duel. Aryan spec-rev and the Lieutenant lost his arm. Ever since then Phoenix Company- the night watch- and Dragon Company have not been on the best of terms. And Dragon Company have a strong dislike of Aryan.
During our investigations we discovered that four days ago Boliver had started his "life" He had no history past the last four days. Thus, from this we concluded he lost his soul four days ago. He then was murdered two days ago. Our next decision was to head into Old Seagate. Pierre cast Disguise Illusion on the party. And Jaycey took out her cart and Pickles. Walking through the streets of New Seagate we were pampered by market stalls and their owners, trying to sell phony Amulets of Elder-Daisy's and Amulets of Copper- which become offered when Pierre pulled out his sock filled with gems. Pierre, to ditch the crowd threw a gem into the air behind him. A nice blue one. Anooke went off and pickpocketed some adult urchins. We then headed off to Old Seagate, and we passed many good taverns that I longed to enter mournfully.
Investigating the "crime scene" we found no traces of blood, but felt if we dug down enough... The current show playing at the Theatre was Red Hand Bandit. There was a note that read the Understudy was to be playing the bandit. Edward is the manager of this Theatre. We also discovered there was no show on tonight because of the Guild Meeting. There was however a wake for Boliver. We entered the Theatre and immediately came across a young man. Who was gloating about his amazing performance of the play. This was Pierta the understudy, who had taken on the lead role since Boliver's death.
After a brief encounter with the energetic understudy, we moved off to speak to Anatalia, the lead actress. Anatalia and Pierre have a brief history with each other. We all got introduced to her. And we found out that she and Boliver had been "seeing a bit of each other" and she seemed "genuinely" upset about his passing. She told us that she saw a Ruffian bending over the body, then when she called out to him, the dude turned off. She went over to see what the thing was he was investigating and started shouting for the guards when she saw the blood. Later she realized it was Boli.
She also told us that he started acting weird two days before his death, right around the time we figured he had lost his soul. They had a fight and she was upset because he called her names.
Edward is a middle-aged man, who was currently writing a script about two star-crossed lovers that run away from their family to be together. They run away to the fey and get tricks played on them by the Fey. Edward tells us that Boli was a good actor, and that he worked odd jobs on the side. He also told us a girl came to see him, and that Gloriana may know more.
So, after saying goodbye we went and spoke to Gloriana. Gloriana was genuinely upset over Boli's passing, she said that she thought Boli and her were in love. She told us that Rosie was one of his "fans" and that she came by the other day asking about Boli's family. Gloriana kicked her out. Gloriana also told us where Boli had been staying. Something that no-one else knew about the kid.
Off to investigate Boli's living arrangements. There seemed to be nothing of value, we even checked the hidden floorboard compartment and there was nothing there. One of the Boli's neighbors told us of a friend Boli had, a foreigner with a sing-song voice and wearing a skirt. Which we defined as Caledonian.
A search of the docks revealed two ships, the one we were interested in was the Sea-Wave. At a nearby tavern. We sat and ate food and drank ale. Finding out that the "Sea-Wave" wasn't in dock. As to avoid a tax. We then went to return to the Theatre for the evenings wake. However, Jaycey's cart was now missing a wheel. Putting cart and Pickles away. We then went off to the Theatre. Here we met yet another suspect. Carlos, one of the actors, who was not very sad Boli was gone. We found out it was because he mooned after Anatalia. So, we would be questioning him. The Caledonian wasn't there so it made for not a good friend scenario.
We were met up by Kharmul, a Celestial Shadow mage that the guild sent to join us during the wake. The wake didn't give us much more detail, there was no Rosie at this wake. We went off to a rough tavern at 3am after talking for an hour. Including catching Kharmul up on what we had learned so far. Followed by a conversation on Kharmul's abilities.
Kharmul-"I can take on different personas" Anooke- "You can shape-change?"
W'ansday
Sylvester here again. Day two of our murder investigation continues, but now joined by Kharmul, with his DA ability, we might get a good start to the day. So after a breakfast, which we ate whilst drunk people were thrown into the alley and hay was replaced with fresh stuff.
We then headed down to the docks to find our sing-songy friend. Whilst the party argued about who would talk to the shipwright. Kharmul went ahead and called out. We dragged up the attention of a couple of people on the ship. We ended up going to have a drink in the nearby bar. We had to wait a couple hours until they got off duty to come have a drink. And we started aking about Boli and the guy in the front had no idea, but the guy at the back knew who Boli was. We had a chat with Eurin, who played cards with Boli and Boli bought drinks when he was having a good hand, and Boli would share his ideas or his most recently mooned after girl.
Eurin doesn't have a good memory of all the things Boli had told him about. Ale tends to do that to ones memory, and we learnt there was always a fair bit of it. Eurin was telling us all about this one girl that Boli had been sweet on recently, if we weren't as smart as he was he might have thought it was love. Her name was Rosie. From what Eurin remembered was that Rosie was a seamstress, but that was all he could remember. He also remembered that Boli had a patron in the theatre who kept giving him money for good clothes and other things. We made plans to talk to Eurin again later that night and try and "hypnotize" him. We had to head back to the theatre and see the show as well, and there was a comment made about the Thespians.
Kharmul- "You afraid of the Thespians?" Pierre the Halfling- "Yes. They're bigger than me."
Horton wants to purchase jewelry to give to the thespians instead of a couple of copper pieces. We sat in our tavern and discussed several options for the evening. Kharmul wanted to know if our employer was paying for all our expenses. He also wanted to know if we could illusion him to look like Boliver, a way to draw out the killer.
"Fake the fake death."
Making a checklist of what we need to do, Talk to Rosie, Interview Carlos, watch show, and have dinner with Eurin, who ensures us he doesn't swing that way. We went and collected Eurin for dinner and took him to our tavern for drinks and cards. Him and a few mates came. Horton payed for drinks, and food for the group. Then whilst we all distracted the others Horton hypnotized Eurin and we learnt the five days previous 26th to the 30th. He also now remembered that Rosie was a seamstress at a fancy tailor. Eurin also dislikes the theatre, but has the hots for Gloriana one of Boliver's ex girlfriends.
We went off to a play and saw a play about a boy he joined merchants travelling along the roads, who led those merchants into traps and ambushes set by the red hand bandits. The leader of the bandits was Red Hand himself, he also fell in love with the sister of the man who led the merchants into traps. The brother was leading merchants into traps trying to get his sister back. Towards the end of the play we discovered the real plot when the sister poisoned red hand and took over the bandit company. The brother lured merchants into the bandit's ambushes, and the sister led the bandits.
After the play we went home. Or to our inn. Except Jaycey who had picked up a Halfling thespian from the show. Who kept claiming he was "Good with his hands." The two went off for drinks and ale at a tavern and Pierre got nominated to make sure she was safe. Jaycey learnt that he was good with his hands that night. And Pierre got to watch it all.
Thu'rsday
Sylvester here, today we head over to New Seagate to find this Rosie and see if she can help us at all. After three hours we found a little sewing shop, and inside worked a beautiful young woman, that is, after you snatched your eyes away from the woman's well-endowed body. Most of the males of the party desperately struggled with that. I looked into her beautiful Hazel eyes, and knew that Boli probably didn't love her, but lusted after her because of her figure. Rosie was very upset about Boli's death and the only things she could tell us, were that she knew he had a rich uncle around Seagate somewhere. That she and him were going to make a new cloak made from wolf pelt and seaweed, very waterproof. Rosie was very nervous, and her boss was very bothering on her taking to long with some customer's.
Boli had good news, he had plans with this new type of cloak. A Raincoat. The two had been seeing each other for four weeks. We end up inviting Rosie for dinner. She accepts. Kharmul sets the Halflings on watch along with himself. Horton and I went off to the tavern. We heard later that Kharmul had sent Halflings to tail the boss and Rosie when they left the store. Up until Rosie left for the evening dinner.
LIST OF TASKS TO COMPLETE -Break into theatre
Kharmul has a theory. Any theory goes now, seeing as he reckons, Boli removed his soul from his body, and then his body was murdered.
Rosie tells us that Boliver was sweet and kind. And that they "Fell in Love". Boliver and Rosie were making coats. Their supposed future company received materials from the five sisters. Boliver had a big shipment come through a week ago. 3 days before his soul went missing. Rosie was due to check in on the supplies.
Rosie then told us how Boliver was trying to play his way into a big stakes game. And if he won he would have enough money to open their company. There was one lady sponsoring Boliver, an elder woman by the name of Lady Chattlesworth. A widow.
Rosie told us all about how the Theatre was all for the contacts.
Out of curiosity Rosie asked about why we were so interested, in Boliver. We told her that the rich uncle she had heard a little bit about, had hired us to find out what we could. Rosie now knows that we are safe people. She tells us a little bit more. Boliver visited her the morning. Bought her a pastry from a bakery. Which Pierre later discovered, which bakery it was. We also found out that Boliver was in trouble occasionally with the guards. Boliver had another deal the night following his breakfast with Rosie.
Narrowing the time frame in which he was killed. 5am he was in New Seagate. About an hour later he was murdered.
Need to check up on Fences, Bakeries, Temples, The Secret Stash, and the Guards.
We sneakily followed Rosie home finding that she lived in the seamstress shop. Horton did an ESP and discovered a mind on the edge of his radius that was thinking about him.
Kharmul and Anooke were on watch that night. A man approached Anooke and talked to him about Theify things and not operating in Seagate. Anooke replied with on bodyguard mission. Anooke offered payment for info on anything to do with Boliver. In the morning a party followed Rosie out to a wash place, where Horton's ESP picks up on her secret stash location. Pierre in the meantime went to a bakery and pretty much discovered the delicious flaky pastry that Boliver had purchased for Rosie. We decide to take a rain check on searching Edwards books, as tonight is a busy night for the theatre. We also wanted to confirm the bakery was the right one, so we had to go to ALL the bakeries.
Jaycey – "We must go to ALL the bakeries" Sylvestor – "There's one in Old Seagate..." Jaycey – "No. ALL the bakeries."
During our search of the bakeries we heard word that Boliver's death has gotten around, and that it was in fact a professionally done job. Which led us to the conclusion of we need to shake down the assassins guild. It also did lead to a debate on what a collective of assassins was called. I'm settling with "Slew" because "A Slew of Assassins." Just seems right. We remembered that mind speech wasn't on and quickly renamed Assassins to vegetable growers. "A Slaw of Vegetable Growers."
Pierre wanted to make a cart but that would require wood. And a private area.
Anooke – "You just need a little nook or cranny." Kharmul – "I found Anooke."
We headed back to the guild and got told there are no assassins in the guild. Then we asked for the vegetable growers and got told to go out back – to the artisan farmers – Then Kharmul went to the library to ask the philosophers about soul stealing and find out some more stuff. Cipher sat down and did a ritual. Eventually learning from her limited pre-cog that we would be sitting in the guild bar in 7 hours whilst Kharmul pooled over his books.
Cipher – "We're going to be here awhile." Sylvestor – "Cool, I'm off to the bar then."
Kharmul investigated Lady Chattlesworth. She is about 60 years old, and has children, a rich woman. During the search we were handed a small note, that read the name of a tavern. The Prancing Pony. We went down there and met with a member of the Thieves Guild. Turns out one of their smugglers has gone missing. They're offering a reward for confirmation of a death, and a reward for returning the missing T.
That night we returned to our tavern in New Seagate which we now remembered is called the Bunch of Grapes. The Dwarf and the piss-drunk me stayed on watch. In the morning there was complaint about stolen items. The party then got blamed because of the Halflings. Being arrested is great. Especially when the guard is allowing us to stop at a bakery for breakfast.
So, we stopped for breakfast, handing off some delectable pastry's off to the two guards taking us to the jailhouse. We went in with no issues, yet as we claimed to be adventurers, the guards didn't believe us. However, they did send for a representative from the guild. So, we waited with an unlocked cage door. Three hooded figures came in. And basically, told the guards that yes, we were adventurers. And when we were asked if we stole anything and replied with the honest "No" They told the guards that we didn't steal anything. We ate lunch whilst we decided what the next course of action was.
That course of action happened to be investigating Lady Chattlesworth. As we decided on who should go in. We found ourselves seeing the Justiciar of Uriel. We "shadowed" him. Meaning Kharmul shadowed him, whilst we the party stayed in mind speech range. We learned that his name was Justiciar Cast-No-Stone of Uriel. Anooke went and talked to some urchins whilst Kharmul got shook down by the Justiciar. Anooke learnt that the Justiciar was looking for a thief. Kharmul then went into one of the temples and talked to an altar boy. A Sammaelite attempts to convert Kharmul to their religion. We then returned to Lady Chattlesworth.
Lady Chattlesworth last saw Boliver when he was in the theater. After tea and cakes with Chattlesworth, Horton, Kharmul and I. We discovered that Pierre and Anooke... well Anooke, had "borrowed" some books. The books turned out one was a one out of four books. They had also found a note signed from "B" the note contained flattery. We took the books to the philosophers in the guild. It turned out one book was priceless, and the other a study of Thaumaturgies. The Halfling wanted to make a copy of the book.
We refused however and on top of Anooke's blatant ignorance and stupidity we were banned from the library. We then sought to return the books. When we did so, Chattlesworth's Butler noticed the missing bar. Which was sitting in Anookes pocket. Pierre with not much time, flew up to the roof. Went through the building and replaced the books. We then "shadowed" the butler from the house to the temple. Justiciar Cast-No-Stone and a couple of other Urielites. They returned to the house and investigated. We believe that the Justiciar will know that Anooke broke into the house.
Oh did I mention that we took the priceless book to Aaron, so he could mark it for later locating purposes.
We started this morning with Anooke summoning a dog made from his ice stuff. We decided following this to head to a bakery and eat some breakfast. From the bakery owner we learnt that Justiciar Cast-No-Stone had lost a gem. And that the night this gem went missing was the night Boliver lost his soul.
The Justiciar is very interested in a young human male, who he believes is the one who had stolen the gem. We also heard that there was a larger run of arms dealing and investigations going on.
We then figured that we should investigate the Town Guard who investigated the death. Sergeant Tarsky was the one who had been investigating the 'mugging gone wrong'.
We have also decided as a party that the most dangerous thing to our party is a bored Halfling. Anooke wanted to burn down a specific block of buildings that included one or several bars frequented by guards. We managed to talk him out of it.
We contacted a member of the Thieves Guild down in a bar or something near the docks. We wanted more info on the smuggler that had gone missing.
After getting this extra info we believe that Boliver may be the smuggler. As the smuggler appeared to be a slightly older appearing Boliver named Oliver/Ollie.
The member of the Thieves Guild had a say about the Visconte, the Vi Count. Who is a black market dealer/ fence and Pawn Shop broker. His shop is guarded by an Ogre with a huge walking stick that's wide on one end and thinner on the other.
The man in the shop denied anything we spoke to him about and became almost useless. Anooke decides to do some shopping in the Pawn Shop and came across a magical enchanted tin cup. What it does I don't know or care. Jaycey told me 10 pints and Anooke said 30 at one stage
Anooke returns to the store to buy some more stuff just so he can ice history the guy. The fence has no Magical history on him as far as Anooke can tell.
Horton fails yet again on telepathy. We manage to follow the fence all the way to his manor home out of Seagate. We case the joint... I mean we discuss escape routes after we forcefully talk to the fence. We catch Kharmul up on the events of the past day. We had returned to our tavern in Old Seagate. There someone was sent to boot people out of the room we rented out a week ago.
Duesday
Kharmul decides to go and speak to Visconte, the Thieves Guild Fence. Following Kharmul's attempts to get info out of the fence, but he still gets nothing out of him, if anything. Kharmul also got the ogre to notice him.
Later the party decides to go for a picnic and send me, the water mage to investigate the jetty of the fence for a secret tunnel for possibly smuggling. So, I cast my spells when I get in the water, Anooke throwing cold resistance on me and Jaycey making me invisible. Jaycey however wasn't concealed casting and we were sitting in full view of the castle. So, several castle guards came racing out.
Anooke in a panic immediately cast his iceberg spell, forming an iceberg submarine. This caused the castle guards to lower their lances and come charging to attack. Everyone in the party disappeared into Anooke's sub and they vanished into the water. They disappeared several miles upriver. Then they began to make their way slowly back to Seagate.
During their hasted escape I continued to swim downriver, letting the sweet water carry me and not doing too much effort. However, when I investigated the jetty and there was no tunnel. I then continued downstream for a bit until I was a few miles outside the city. I moved my way inside the city and off to the tavern in Old Seagate and waited for my companions.
They took their sweet as time and were back at 7. The gates were closed. Castle and Town guards stood watching in case of an attack. The party pay their usual bribes. All except Anooke who climbs over the wall. That night Kharmul prepared for a beating. We weren't disturbed. Anooke put a block of ice in front of the door.
W'andsday
The next morning, we had breakfast and heard the rumors of the Drow attack on Seagate castle, with their goblins disguised as Halflings accomplices. And that the ragtag army was seen off by the brave Castle Guards. We spent most of the day outside of Seagate whilst Pierre placed permeant disguises on us, new disguises, different from what we had.
After we changed my disguise, we sat at a bakery and discussed what we were going to do, how we were going to find the gem
Kharmul- "What are we going to do today?" Anooke- "Eat pastries, like every other day."
As we left the bakery a man in butler-like clothing entered and ordered his guards to grab Kharmul, of course we had disguised Kharmul as what we believed the missing smuggler Ollie looked like. Kharmul ran. As did Pierre and the other halflings. This left the Dwarf and Elf behind, to attempt to question the butler about this. I tried but the man didn't give away any important information. Other than Ollie the smuggler was interfering with a Lord's horses, Ormond horses.
When the halflings came back, with a human commoner, we stalked the butler and his guards through the streets. We find out that he serves the Baron Odesko, the current ambassador from Ormond. Odesko keeps racing horses. They also breed them.
We follow the butler out to the Barons private stables. Which are located outside of town. Anooke tried to convince the party that Boliver/Ollie tried to hide the gem inside the horses. Later that evening we decide to b and e into 'Needles' the Tailor shop that Rosie works at. However, after unlocking the rank 8 lock, Pierre notices something on his hand. And believes if he wasn't wearing gloves it would have been very sore. He reset the poisoned? Needle trap. Then we saw the Thieves guild mark of 'Not this one.' As in 'Not this one, you stupid idiot'
We were spotted by Thieves guild and beat a hasty retreat. From the nearest pub. We made our way outside town to check out the tannery. Perhaps by chance Boli had hidden the gem there. Sadly, this was not true. So, we then went to the private stables seeing as the Fences home was too far away.
Leaving the Dwarf behind, because they couldn't stealth. We went invis or walking unseen and attempted to sneak our way into the stables to look at these horses. Anooke and Kharmul were spotted and we had to do one of the guards in with a knockout from a sap. And the other took some damage and ran. Shit had gone sideways. The guard made it away.
So, we staged a performance. We had told our Dwarf to create a distraction, so a small fire was created on the other side of the street. Anooke quickly put it out. We finished setting up the staged incident, where two drunk guards had seen something one slipped and fell and the other was delusional.
Kharmul had enough time to DA each horse, and none were magical or suffered under any magical effects.
We then escaped the stables leaving a bizarre crime behind. The next morning there were rumors that some careless person started a fire up out of town. And in the underground chatter, someone had attempted to break into Needles. And they must have been outsiders, because no-one in Seagate would be stupid enough to break into Needles.
There was also word that Baron Odesko was calling for the Duke's Investigator Erzsabet, because Odesko believes that his guards were messed with and horses were messed with as well. Kharmul decides it would be a good idea to have tea with the investigator.
So, we took our jolly good time deciding what we were going to do and how we were going to approach the fact that we still had no idea what this gem even looked like.
We started by checking the theatre and unfortunately the gem was not within the theatre and there was of course no magical gem. We question Anatalia again, and in her head, our slightly evil mind mage feels that Boliver was losing interest in her and didn't really need her in his life. And this came into a more apparent state in the two days before Boliver died.
After this we planned to try and find out what the gem looked like from Lady Chattlesworth. Kharmul became disguised as Justiciar Cast-No-Stone. Cipher and Horton get disguised as Ureilites. They go to question Lady Chattlesworth, but the butler tells them that that the lady is going to be going out.
So, the plan gets put off. We follow the lady and find out that her evening plans include the temple of the one horned god. Kharmul says we should mug the butler now and then apprehend the lady when she comes out.
Pierre- "So you're going to mug the Butler as the Justiciar?"
We decide against mugging and decide to wait for them to come out. Some Evil cultists of Forneus, come to investigate. Then because they can't find us due to an illusory wall from Pierre, they head off towards the docks. Some Michaelines show up, and Anooke steps out and says they went that way. The Michaelines charged off after the "evil cultists".
We see temple row getting busier as more parties leave the temples and head off towards the docks. The clash of metal on metal and the cries of pain can be heard from the temples.
Soon our lady leaves the temple with a group of three others. Joining with her butler makes the group five members large. We give chase, leaving the dwarf behind and a woman from the group stops to hold us up, although it's the Justiciar she really is stopping. Kharmul tries to get past but she drops her cloak to reveal a fur clad bikini, and curved blades. She was also tall and blonde, not that Kharmul got to look up.
I attempt to slow the woman down knowing that Kharmul would be trying to go around. Little did I know he was being stolen by the Gabrielites and their call "To Arms". Luckily, he was rescued by our mil-sci. So, I got socked after she said shed hurt me and I asked if that was included in the cost. 14 points of Endurance damage later. I head back to the party defeated. Anooke investigates the battle.
The Michaelines were lured into a trap by the cultists, and the cultists were attacking them with larger numbers. The Michaelines and their great sod off swords, quite obviously had the advantage. But the Town Guard was rallying nearby, and the Gabrielites and their rallied mass came pouring in. That's when it was heard hooves clattering on flagstones. As the castle guard came charging in.
We retreated to our tavern. We still had three Ureilites. I had the ice cube and some waters of healing to cure my injured endurance. And we rested. In the morning very early, we went off to Lady Chattlesworth's to question her. Which went down very successfully. We found out what the gem looked like. Grey with pearlescence swirls. About the size of an egg.
Cast-No-Stone was also looking for Boliver or Ivar as the Lady told us his name was. Inside the treasure vault was a Golden Statue of Fertility but that was the only thing that was magical.
So after finding out the info we needed from the gem, and that the butlers name was Geoffery. We head off to a bakery as that's where those that remained chose to go as the concluded their investigation of the house and gem. The bakery gossip we got then was that there was a poisoning at the tea society (thieves guild or a tea house where the thieves go to drink tea)!.
We made our way over to the Visconte's Pawn Broker shop. Our Mind mage tried to pick up the ogre but failed. Kharmul decides that being a cursed Ollie works just as well as zombie Ollie. The Ureilite disguises will wear off before the store opens.
Kharmul went off to the guild to get a temporary low curse put on him. He gets held up by the guilds gate guards (who turn out to be followers of a faction of the Dalranites), who took their sweet time getting someone to identify him as a guild member, especially after he insulted them. No-one can curse him from Rune to Wicca's. However, he can get an Illusionary Aura put on him, the only person who could do this was a Giant Frog, caused by an earlier backfire.
Kharmul returns with an aura that shows up as cursed. We make the plan to interrogate the fence. Kharmul in his Ollie disguise, with Jaycey and Pierre as back up. Both get kicked out of the store by the Ogre who grunts "No Halflings today, Thanks"
Visconte tells Ollie that he has no access to any gems that Ollie describes. But he does give Ollie his winnings from the race. 40 True Silver Guineas (some 10,000sp).
So, we send in the Hobbit interrogation squad. Horton gets both the Ogre and Visconte on telepathy and gets the ogre on Control Person. Pierre interrogates Visconte, and Visconte lets off in his head that we are looking for a Professor Urtz Perg, up at MMHS Mittlemark University. Pierre throws a crème bun at Visconte and he throws a bag of sleeping powder. Our two halflings resist but the dwarf falls asleep.
We run after the ogre enters the store. Later Horton finds a quiet alley to telepathy Lady Chattlesworth to see if its possible that her house can be robbed for the book. He is chased by 2 Michaellines and a Ureilite. He escapes, and we skip town to head over to the guild. Our dwarf goes up to the library and pays for research on this gem we are looking for. Turns out it is a soul gem.
We plan to fly north to the university, collecting our gear and making our way to the university from Seagate was a simple task, straight North, with some slight detours. We end up flying through the magical wastelands. Kharmul flies into fractured air and land and starts lagging as he is now a bit Fractal. There are some flying roc's with a village, a large purple flying worm comes out of the ground and disappears back in, its entire body is longer than 50 ft. There is a fortified encampment battling some creepy bug like things. A couple weird bird like things fly toward us, Pierre zaps one with a Firebolt, and it runs away, but Jaycey gets grazed by claws of the other. But it gets dealt with.
We make our landing near sunset, Cipher and Kharmul both fail, Kharmul hits the ground and makes his primary arm useless. Cipher skids along the ground at 46 mph and collides with a tree ending up with endurance bleeding. Cipher is put into hibernation mode, and we set up camp and try to prepare for our trip to the university.
So, whilst we were resting, with Pierre and Cipher on watch we become under attack. After rousing the party, we got up and prepared our defense. What we came against was terrifying flying monkeys and two bears that we worked out were were-animals A warrior bear with a big axe, and a spellcasting bear, turns out don't make a nice combination.
After a combat and an attempt to stop the loot from escaping, they escaped much to our dismay.
We then went about resting and curing ourselves of injuries. Before making our way to our destination. Paying the slightly more expensive bribes and giving the usual stories, we were let into the most expensive place I have ever been. We spent the next couple of days searching for any rumors or stories about Professor Urtz Perg to learn more about who he was and what he did.
Turns out he is the leader of the department of inhumanities. One of the more well-funded departments with an end goal of extending life.
We discussed how we were going to get close to him.
Kharmul – "We should kill a student." Jaycey – "Which student are we killing?"
Anooke offered his cloning machine to get a meeting with the Professor.
After beating around the bush, we decide to go right in. A guy named Jarome had the gem commissioned, and they wanted an empty soul stone, but ended up with one with three souls inside. Pierre and Horton decide to head back to the guild, to retrieve Boliver's body. A binder shrinks it. Then they fly back.
We then cloned the body twice, and supplied the university at MMHs receivers for the souls.
After an hour, two of the bodies got up, the remaining soul went into Anooke. So, he touched the soul stone. An hour later Anooke and the third Boliver body walked out of the room.
So, as it turns out, Boliver, Lord Chattlesworth and Trent of Ranke were in the stone. Trent was an E&E, and mind mage, and an ex vampire. The guild told us all about Trent of Ranke. A vampire for 100 years before his soul was sucked into the stone.
However, we successfully completed the job. The majority of the party said no to letting the Trent go free. I won't name names but Anooke and I agreed he should go free (possibly loosing an evil back into the world), so we could get loot.
We came back to the guild before we let Trent go. Lord Chattlesworth went off to start his life over. Boliver was sent home to his mother, with Rosie as far as we know. We got our pay, and a week or so later we got called in to the meeting room, and given a crate, with a note that read "I always repay my debts. – Trent"
So with that I conclude the adventure, happy that we could actually finish it after all the time we spent screwing around in Seagate.
Dramatis Personae
- Boliver - the dead man of mystery with important wealthy relatives
- Oliver - a smuggler type
- Lord Chattlesworth - a widower (husband had died decades ago) with a fondness for up and coming actors to 'sponsor'
- Lady Chattlesworth -
- Trent of Ranke - An ex E&E, and mind mage, and an ex vampire. The guild told us all about Trent of Ranke. A vampire for 100 years before his soul was sucked into the stone
- Rosie - Boliver's love and nice girl, apprentice seamstress
- Professor Urtz Perg
- Jarome
- Visconte
- Justiciar Cast-No-Stone
- Anatalia
- Gloriana
- Edward
Logistics
Loot and Expenses
Calendar
Autumn 818wk: Fruit (4) | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Moonday | Duesday | W'ansday | Th'rsday | Frysday | Reapsday | Sunday | ||||||||
Lugnasad | 1 | Guild Meeting | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||||
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | ||||||||
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | ||||||||
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | ||||||||
28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||
Autumn 818wk: Harvest (5) | ||||||||||||||
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | ||||||||
12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Equinox | 16 | 17 | 18 | |||||||
19 | Harvest Moon .. | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |||||||
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
Autumn 818wk: Vintage (6) | ||||||||||||||
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ||||||||
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | ||||||||
17 | Blood Moon | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | |||||||
24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | Beerfest |