Session 7: The one where a pigeon projectile shits on Rormir (December 14, 2022)
Last session, the party woke up at Potion Pitstop ready to get some information. They looked through the letters Rormir had received and determined that those letters refer to the break-in at Potion Pitstop and that the correspondent “A.” must be the trashcan with legs they saw earlier. With this realization they set hot on the trashcan’s trail.
They tracked the mysterious disguised stranger to the roof of a building in the warehouse district. There they found a room full of pigeons, and a woman expertly disguised as the wall. Upon being discovered she introduced herself as Ana and through a game of questions they learned that she had been hired by the government of Ivalgo to observe the burglars as they traveled to the city and back. They also learned that she is now tasked with keeping an eye on them going forward.
Once the party asked too many specifics, however, Ana vanished. The party tracked her inside the empty warehouse they were on, but she managed to slip away after a third teleportation. Heph recognized that she was wearing a ring that must have allowed her to cast Misty Step, and that would have a limited number of charges per day. He also recognized the hawk ring as a Band of Loyalty, which will kill the person attuned to it once they drop to 0 HP.
The party regrouped at Potion Pitstop and decided to head to Arkos to investigate the hawk ring further. They looked at the port schedule and Elias realized that the boat leaving for Arkos this evening is the one he stowed away on to get to Ivalgo just a couple days earlier.
- Amble estimates the fare to Arkos is about 10 to 15 gold per person
- Elias says the party probably needs to pack food, and Spraus runs off immediately to the kitchen to make lunches
- Heph asks if Elias will be in disguise the entire time, and he says no, he’s going to send his brother Lord Jeremias Boulevardier in his place
- He then runs down to a thrift clothing store in Capitale
Market and buys cheap-but-nice-looking jewelry and a
fancy looking hat for 1gp total
- The shopkeeper even went around back to pluck a chicken’s feather for the hat
- After about an hour Jeremias arrives at Potion Pitstop
- He says he’s Elias’s brother and a lord
- When he goes upstairs, Heph and Rormir are confused
and think Jeremias is just Elias pretending
- They refuse to “reintroduce” themselves, so Jeremias calls them “short one” and “naked one”
- The party then continues shopping
- Heph buys Tinker’s Tools at Hammers ’n Things
- Rormir buys a dagger and a Hand Drum at Traveler’s Dilemma
- The party then heads down to the docks
- A bored-looking woman is sitting in front of the Bright Horizon
- She’s unimpressed by Jeremias pulling coins out of his sleeves
- The party pays her 14gp each
- They then hang around the remaining hour for the ship to board, and get on
- The captain stands at the forecastle and cheerily introduces herself to
everyone as Captain Nanda del Becco
- She explains the passenger bunks are below deck, and there are locked chests nailed to the floor to store everyone’s belongings
- The ship should arrive early the next morning, and she wishes everyone a pleasant trip
- The ship pulls away from dock
- Everyone looks around at the other passengers
- Rormir walks up to the pigeon and asks if it’s okay
- On a nat 1 animal handling it projectile shits all over Rormir’s Heart of the Sleeveless
- The man grunts and walks away
- Heph sees the moustached man go below decks and follows to claim a
bunk for himself
- He sees the man approaching a door on the opposite end of the hallway from the berth
- There’s the faint sound of raised voices coming from that door
- When he enters the room, Heph and Rormir see a circle of people sitting on the floor
- Heph pulls Jeremias and Rormir aside in
the berth to talk about the guy and the closed room
- Jeremias isn’t too interested
- Jeremias looks around the room for someone who looks
well-traveled
- He approaches a trader with a bag full of goods from Ivalgo
- The man is rotund, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and is currently pulling out his polka-dot pajamas and sleeping cap
- Jeremias introduces himself and the man says he’s a dealer of knick-knacks
- Jeremias says he wants to buy some and the trader opens his bag
- Jeremias sees various items of small value, such as metal ring puzzles and wooden nutcrackers
- His eye is drawn however to an octagonal prism about a foot in length and 4 inches in diameter
- It’s incredibly shiny, and looks like a solid piece of metal
- The trader says he’s planning on selling it in Arkos for a high
price
- A friend of his found it while mining up in the Bismarck Empire, and snuck it off the site under the nose of his boss
- He asks Jeremias to touch it, try to get fingerprints on it
- The trader is surprised by Rormir’s appearance and asks if he’s into knick-knacks as well
- The trader knows next to nothing about the cylinder, which is somewhat common
for the items he acquires, but he’s hoping to get about 500gp for it
- Noticing that Jeremias appears wealthy, he asks if he wants to buy it
- Jeremias declines, and asks if the trader has a buyer in mind
- The trader says there’s going to be an auction in Arkos
- A lot of valuable items, especially those of archeological interest, will be sold at the auction
- The trader bids Jeremias farewell, and says “Thom’s Wares is
the name, selling knick-knacks is the game!”
- He then puts his sleeping cap on over his wide-brimmed hat
- Heph goes to check out the room he saw the man enter
- He hears raised voices through the door, some happy, some frustrated
- He throws a few fart rocks under the door and walks back to the berth
- The voices get louder and start arguing
- A sweaty, fat man in a white tank top opens the door and quickly shuts it
behind him, leaning back against it taking deep breaths
- Heph walks up to him
- He introduces himself as Emeril and says someone let loose an awful fart in
there
- Heph asks how bad, and he responds “Top ten I’ve smelled, top 5 I’ve made”
- Emeril introduces himself as the chef onboard and shakes Heph’s
hand
- Heph wipes the sweat off on his clothes, but Emeril notices and seems to get it
- He says if Heph wants any food while on board, just ask him
- He says behind the door is an unofficial but not-really-secret craps game
- Crew members and passengers in the know will go in to play
- After taking a deep breath, Emeril heads back in and Heph follows
- He sees a circle of people playing craps
- Some are eating what appears to be flatbread topped with mashed tomatoes and melted cheese and sometimes sliced sausage
- Also the man with the moustache and the pigeon is currently rolling
- Heph sits next to the man such than he’ll be the last in the circle
to go next, and figures out the rules
- The man is difficult to engage in conversation, speaking mostly in grunts and single words
- The bets keep getting higher as the night goes on
- Heph notices that the man’s moustache seems to keep peeling off, and he repeatedly tries to press it back on
- Heph breaks even at the end
- It seems the moustached man is doing pretty well, but Heph can’t tell if he’s cheating or not
- Also Rormir went in and is just watching
- Eventually the man gets up and leaves with his pile of gold
- Heph and Rormir follow him out, but he doesn’t really
seem to be paying attention to them
- On closer inspection, though, he’s paying more attention than he appears
- Once they reach the berth, they also notice that he takes note of Jeremias
- The man sits down on a bunk and just stares at his feet
- Jeremias walks over to him and tries to appear imposing
- He looks at the pigeon and says “Salty?”
- The pigeon opens one eye and squawks a bit
- Realizing her cover is blown, Ana rips off her moustache and says “How did you know it was me?”
- She says she’s following the party, and might be able to help them even
- Jeremias waves everyone over
- She explains she knows a bit about the burglary and everything surrounding it,
but not everything
- She’s curious to learn more, though, which is part of why she was so willing to follow them
- Jeremias offers that she and the party should work together
- Not to interfere with her job, but just to share information
- Rormir pops a rat out of his Hat of Vermin to try and convince
her
- She opens her satchel and puts it in there, where you see the bat from earlier is also resting
- Salty looks a little jealous
- She agrees to share information
- They do another game where the party asks one question and she asks one question
- During the game she continues to call Jeremias by his name, and Heph takes off his hat in an attempt to show that it’s actually Elias
- Ana provides information that:
- Imperator Hardotus is behind the burglary and everything, not just Governor Literi
- The masks are crucial to what’s going on and that they’re magical
- Governor Literi is very thankful for the party stopping the robbery and as a result they’re probably in good favor with him
- The party gives juicy secrets:
- Rormir says the poop they found on the floor of Potion
Pitstop was his
- He’s still learning how that works
- Jeremias, after a lot of pressure, says that his brother isn’t great a paying fares for ships he rides on
- Heph says he’s a stone mason, which isn’t juicy enough
- Rormir explains he’s from another realm where everything is dream-like and there are lots of animal spirits and he was sent here by a giant snake spirit
- Rormir says the poop they found on the floor of Potion
Pitstop was his
- Ana has more questions but the game is over
- She lays down, puts a sleeping mask over her eyes, and immediately falls asleep
- Jeremias gives Salty a bit of dry bread and on a 17 animal handling Salty gives Jeremias a little kiss on the nose
- The group turns in for the night
- Jeremias sleeps up at the forecastle
- On a nat 20 perception, Jeremias wakes up, noticing that the
sea is eerily calm
- A think fog is covering the boat and a chorus of deep voices is singing some ancient melody from out over the water
- He then sees several pairs of turquoise dots, staring out at him from the mist