Chateau Haut-Brion

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Summary

Adventure: Chateau Haut-Brion
GM: Jono Bean
Session: Summer 816
Night: Sunday & Monday nights starting at 5:00pm and 7:00pm depending
Location Waterview
Level: Medium Level.
Information: Information from players for Jono.
Play test: Alchemist, Assassin, Beastmaster, Thief, Ranger, and others.

The Party:

Scribe Notes

Session one

Employer & others

Others:
Master Ranks works for Alchemist, Assassin, Beastmaster, Thief and Ranger are in the offering.

Employment:
It has come to your attention by way of friends of friends (with yet closer friends) who are in the know, some with influence in the great houses of Carzala and yet other friends who are said to be close to people who have the ear of Duke Leto himself - all have common stories over the last six months of a new unified group of underhanded thugs creating problems said to be under the watchful eye of the feared Lieutenant Bythesea who is said to speak for the reclusive despotic leader Elder Eye.
People are being sought that can find out more and take care of these and other issues such as those trying to spread into the cities of Calder and Chelemby.

Buffs and Mil Sci

Long Term (assumed always on)

Magic (caster) Rk Effects Dur An Ch Je Ma Te Vi
Alligator Skin (Te) 12 +13 Def, +4 NA 6.5 hrs
Mind Cloak (various) Conceals thoughts
Fire Armour (FC) 10 Absorb 44 Fire Damage 5 hrs
Cat Vision (Te) 6 110' vision (needs some light) 7 hrs
Animal Growth (Te) 6 PSx2,ENx3,FTx2,TMRx1.5,NAx2 7 days (ends on changing shape)
Magic (caster) Rk Effects ** on duration includes Enhance Enchantment Dur

Short Term

Magic Rk Effects Dur An Ch Je Ma Te Vi
Magic (caster) 5 free action to heal up to 1/2 damage received, max 10 5 days

Viola does multi- target multiple images that she can assign to people.

Watch Order:

Watch cycle as follows: 8pm ? 11pm, 10pm ? 1am, Midnight ? 3am, 2am ? 5am, 4am ? 7am.

Vision:

  • Tegan - Cat vision 110' Rg (needs some light), can see spirits, ethereal, invisible, other weird shit and things that are not there.
  • Viola - Illusionist enhanced vision

Other Enhanced Senses:

  • Tegan - Can hear like a Fox.

Marching Order:

Front



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The Artifacts

This is information we have received after Astria has fully trusts us.

  1. "The Heart" Unfortunately know one knows where this is, Lost.
  2. "Choice" This one is in the possession of the girl attendant to Astira.
  3. "Wound" We found this one with the spiders and is now bonded to Cher.
  4. "Effigy" The figure head of the "Adventures/Pirates" boat.
  5. "Traitor" In the possession of the "Lieutenant" in the shape of a hourglass. (Now in the party's hands.)
  6. "Boatman" Which incredibly is the tiller attached to a 30’ foot boat made out of finger nails, inside the royal great hall.
  7. "Thief" A purse which is also a possession of the "Lieutenant". (Now in the party's hands.)
  8. "Prisoner" Ex "Adventures/Pirates" from there boat and now bonded with Veola.
  9. "Nightmare" A skull which was found in the "Adventures/Pirates" inn and now bonded with Tegan.
  10. "Corpse" Do not know what it is but it does help protect the undead from the effects of the sun.
  11. "Widow" Nothing much know about it just it's name. Perhapes it is the one with the Mayor, just by process of elimination.
  12. "Master of Shadows" We think this is the rod which we also found the spiders, but we are not sure. Anooke has bonded to this one.

Lastly there is a outsider artifact which may or may not be with the list called the "Fool". Also nothing much know about it just it's name.

Scribe Notes:

1st After hearing vague rumours of trouble in the North (from friends of the Duchess of ) we travel to the city of Chelemby via a secret portal that comes out in a room at sea level under the docks. The room was filled with illusions and a few spiders. We dodged these and made our way out up through the docks and into the city. On the way up we see a few dodgy characters that we think are the local thieves guild.

We find an Inn to stay at called the Scarlett Cock and start developing our cover story which is as a travelling band of performers. In order to perform in the market square we discover that we have to win the favour of the local families. We do a deal with our Inn keeper where we perform in the Inn and he spreads the word and helps us get patronage. Our first performance goes well and we win the right to perform in the market place and are now expected to put on a series of performances. The Paserin Clan are our patrons. Enock is named keeper of the Queen’s Seal and is covered in coins. The rest of us are named Keepers of the Bedrow. We are contracted to do 3 shows with a grand finale on the 4ther performance. During the performance the locals imply that they can’t talk to us because there are Destinian spies around.

Meanwhile we are contacted by the local thieves who ask us to meet them at the temple of Loki, there we are given our mission, which is to find some of their people that have gone missing. The leader of the ‘thieves’ seems to be an old woman called Catherine the Blind. Catherine is clearly a front for someone. One of them is called Kale and the others are unnamed. The thieves apparently have new rivals in town who are trying to muscle in on their business, which is why they think their people have gone missing. They point out the North East quarter of town where they think the suspicious activity is going on. Their rivals have a suspicious lieutenant and henchman. The thieves show us a mysterious book they think it is about people in power about the city. The book is in a secret pocket so it can’t be located, we have a translation of the original. They also tell us there is a prophesy about Voila but don’t tell us what it is.We also learn that there is some adventurers/pirates who stay at the Mermaid’s Rest. They have a lot of water mages. They are looking for a rod in the crypt under the city.

We visit the apothecary and buy some restoratives, a luck potion and a truth potion. Teagan drinks something that makes her hot. 

We do some scouting about and go to the pub called The Ellison which is located near the area we want to find out about. We mostly find that people are talking about our upcoming play. We meet William the thief. We make an appointment to come back and see Benzene later that night. On the way home we are attacked by spiders which try to ambush us in the streets around The Ellison. We notice that the entire local citizen are foaming at the mouth and chewing stuff. Darkness is cast on the street. A water mage tries to come into the street apparently in opposition to the spiders but take one look at us and runs away. We dispose of the spiders and agree to come back later and investigate further when we have time. Cher has an appointment she must keep.

Cher is contacted by the Captain of the Destinian Guards who implies that we should help him. He invites her to dinner. We find out that he worships Berith so we are not inclined to trust him. He warns us that the Governer Don Trierz, who used to be the Destinian ambassador, is acting strangely. We also find out the King Sirnen is the leader of the Aemon Alliance, which is the alliance of families in the city. There are 90 families, with 6 factions. Of which 5 are strong and one is weak. There is constant jockeying amongst the families and once every 5 years or so there is a coup. There is also a Queen called Lydre. Cher also finds out the Don has crystal balls. He wanted her and her friends to look at them. While Cher is dining with the captain we meet Eric and Hugo in the pub across the street. They are from a village up north, in the Kingdom of Harbaal, which is having trouble with a water elemental. Their ship is called the 3 Waves. They tell us their plan to visit … (someone under the sea). Something about drowning seals and killing Selkies.

We keep our appointment with Benzene, who sends us with Aiden and we help him dig graves in the hopes of infiltrating the opposition’s organisation. Aiden gets us to bury stuff in the graves. He tells us a lie about what is in them ……..????? After our job is done we make an appointment to come back on the next night to meet at the Shoes from more jobs. We go back to our Inn and sleep the night.

2nd We travel to the house near the Ellison where we earlier saw the spider’s lair entrance. We go down the tunnel, beat up all the spiders. Free the townsfolk and members of the thieves guild. We find the rod that the pirates were looking for. We also find Kale, Loft, Euro and Eric and a corpse that resembles a character in the book that the thieves gave us. The former captives tell us that they never saw the corpse alive, it was inanimate the whole time and they have been there for over a month. DA didn’t find a link between the corpse and the book. We find out that the captive peoplewere part of some sort of rune magic sacrificial ritual. The spiders apparently could read our mind if they had been drinking your blood. They were using the blood to find out about the towns people. People were trading with the spiders. There was a big guy, the survivors tell us. We suspect that he the henchman of the lieutenant. We are also told that the captives could hear music at times that the spider appeared captivated by and they suspect some sort of bardic or troubadour magic. They think the spider was the enemy of the pirate/adventures. The also think the spider was saving up to try and get something out the lieutenant. The freed captives give us 4 Waters of Healing. They also show us how to use some of the special magic in the fountains around the city, which help you clean yourself. We race back to do our performance. We make 120 silvers. We rest and sleep for the rest of the day and night due to the rigours so our adventures so far. Viola gets some strange illusionary flowers that are very carefully crafted, that signal admiration from afar.

3rd Notes done by Cher.

After the good night’s sleep we were feeling quite a bit hungry. So I popped down to the bar to get some food for us. As I was down there I noticed an old lady entering the inn with a younger female companion, I recognised the older lady from the meeting we had with the thieves’ guild, she was the leader we spoke too in the bubble and who showed us the book. I quietly walked up to her and introduced myself. She was a little taken back because she did not recognise me in my disguise. Realizing this I said the secret phrase “fish and his boat”, after that she was happy to follow me to the party’s private rooms, where we invited her to have breakfast with us.

The meeting starts off by her introducing herself by her real name, Old Lady “Astria”, and thanking us for the return of her operatives. It is then we mentioned that we had found a couple of items of interest while rescuing the operatives as well as the rest of the city folk from that area. The first item was a rod, we believed it was the rod that the “Adventures/Pirates” were after; she did not know much about it but said the “Ravens” would help us, perhaps it is the ones which have been following us about the city mainly in the market area. The second item was a body (which was still fresh but a few hundred years old) tied to a (?). Astria named it has the “Wound” an artifact of the city. This particular one bestows upon, who ever has done the ritual, the protection from physical attacks from Vampires, but not the magic. A few questions arose from this.

We gleaned that she was reluctant to tell us all of what she knew of the artifacts, but she did tell us of a few.

First off was the “Lieutenant”, the leader of the invading thieves’ guild, he has three:

The “Hourglass”: Bestows immunity to men.

The “Nightmare”: If you have fears when you go to sleep things will go badly for you.

Both of these, she says, he keeps in his purse which he turns inside out to hold the items. Which is the last artifact.


The Royal House has the “Boatman” which incredibly is attached to a 30’ foot boat made out of finger nails, inside their great hall. They surmise the item is the tiller of the boat.


“Adventures/Pirates” have two, “Prisoner” which are some kind of chains/manacles and “Effigy” which is a figure head for a boat, both of which are on their boat in the closed off area of the docks we have previously viewed.


And lastly they have reason to believe that the Mayor has one, but they do not know which.


They also tell us of the ritual that needs to be done, and where (Under the city’s commerce building), before the power can be used. Also if you can bond to more than one it will bring extra abilities. We bid farewell to Astria after breakfast and begin to discuss what we have learnt, but it is soon interrupted by the innkeeper needing Mario for some more input about the play. This leaves Tegan, Anooke and me, since Viola has gone back to rest after she casts our disguise illusions.

Anooke suggests that we should nab another one or both of the artifacts off the “Adventures/Pirates” since we know from Tegan’s rat mapping there might be a way in. We agree that we should at least scout the area. This is of cause, as we all know, is adventurer talk for "Lets nick it". So we head off taking with us some cloaks that can be worn both side, with one side having the colours of the faction against “Adventures/Pirates”, which will be useful later.

Since we do not want anyone to know what we are doing or to follow us we take a convoluted path up and down the sewers narrowly missing guards and people to eventually arrive at the closed off area where the “Adventures/Pirates” boat is and our first obstacle. There in front of us was a grating, magical warded, with the two middle bars pulled apart by means unknown.

Tegan bravely leads the way first, saying she could slip between the bars. Unfortunately bad luck comes to us all and she slips, while going thru, grabbing on to the bars for support...eepp! One small woomp later there is left Anooke and me on one side Tegan’s burnt body in the middle of the grate and, a few seconds later, a naked Tegan on the other side. Then the second eepp! As Tegan is grabbed by some invisible tentacles and dragged off.

Anooke quickly coats the bars, now we know that they are the bad part, with ice and we chase after Tegan grabbing her body as we go. We were lucky; she was able to hold on to a ladder which leads up on to the dock. I quickly free her from the tentacles. While Tegan is redressing she explained she has an item which instantly resurrects her and she can appear anywhere she chooses within 50’ of her body, the only down side is that she appears naked. We also conclude that the “Prisoner” must off been what grabbed her thinking that she was an escapee. After a short while we determined that we had been not heard and carry on.

Cleaver Anooke sets up an ice road so we can get as close to the ship as possible without being seen and after a brief discussion we head to the stern of the boat wear we believe the prisoners are. Off cause to be sure I cast a one way transparency, when we get there, which also helps in to figure out how to get them out. As we look we see that they are all chained to a single item which looks like an upside down pot...the “Prisoner” artifact. Several turned down plans later we decide on going thru the hull with a low rank disintegration. Since this would actually be a bit noisy Anooke came up with the idea too in case us and inside with a shell of ice to muffle any noise we make. All goes good with the casts (Note to self: Attend some philosophy in maths, particularly volume.) but there is one more hurdle, the locks on the chains. I think if we were not all confidant lock pickers this part would not have gone well for us and as it is I think it was close. But with all the prisoners free and onto the ice road we set to planning how to get the “Effigy”.

Before we could turn down the Anooke’s first plan, disintegrating the front of the ship and anything that falls off i.e. Magical would be the “Effigy”, the alarms go off and we scarper taking with us the prisoners and the “Prisoner” (shrunk for easy of carring), making sure we leave one of the cloaks with one side having the colours of the faction against “Adventures/Pirates” behind. We all decide that we should not push our luck and head back to our inn, different route but the same convoluted path. The prisoners say they will do the same and get back to their families and friends hoping that would be enough for their continued freedom. When we get back Mario does not seem pleased at what we have done, but he did not seem angry either. Besides we got back in plenty of time for rest and a bit to eat before our 1:00 pm performance what more could you ask.

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