Session 11: The one where Thor, Mace Windu, Bat Person, and Jesus Christ enter a labyrinth (February 1, 2023)
Last session, our adventurers set to gathering information about the contact Henry Randall sold the Bands of Loyalty to in Arkos. Heph and Rormir trailed Henry to the Circle, a large colosseum-like stadium in downtown which serves as home for the ACE (Arkos Combat Entertainment). There, they met two guards in lavender livery wearing the emblem of a decapitated dove. This emblem matched a mention of “The Helions” on posters in the Circle advertising tonight’s Labyrinth of Death.
Through bribery and some guile but also 27gp worth of bribery, Heph and Rormir convinced the guards to allow them upstairs. There they witnessed Henry speaking to a strange elvish woman in black leather with spiky pink hair and bright pink irises. The woman appeared to be the contact the Bands of Loyalty were sold to. Rormir climbed along the outside of the building to get closer, and heard the woman express confusion that another party had approached Henry claiming to represent her employer. He then slipped and fell 30 feet to the ground, alerting Henry and the woman (named Mary) to his presence.
Meanwhile, Elias headed to Euxine Wares to see what he could dig up in Henry’s absence. He found the store watched by an acne-ridden teenage boy, and easily snuck into the back room to snoop around. In one box he found a listing for the sale of 2,000 Bands of Loyalty on Budbreak 10, 6528 with the sale handled by a “B. Mary” and address listed as “the Circle”, although the sale took place in “Warehouse B” in the Heights. In another box he found a variety of items sold to “NSI government”. This box also contained the note “Client requested information on additional suppliers. Referral made for L.D.” This information gathered, he left to meet Heph and Rormir at the Circle, arriving just after Rormir fell to the ground.
A muscular dwarf in a loincloth and covered in oil motioned for Rormir to follow him, and soon he and the other two members of the party were with this dwarf in an underground portion of the stadium, out of sight of Henry and Mary. The dwarf introduced himself as Joshy and in response to Rormir asking what he wanted in return for hiding them, he said he could use some help with something. Upon Elias asking why he’s covered in oil, Joshy realized he may not have introduced himself adequately, and said that he’s a gladiator and they might know him better by his ring name “Jesus Christ”.
- Joshy says that he’d love it if the party could help him in the
Labyrinth of Death match later that day, but that
maybe it can be beneficial for them as well
- Normally Joshy would be competing with his group “The Apostles”, but they all fell suddenly sick and so couldn’t come tonight
- The party says they need to confer on this, and Joshy begins sparring with a training dummy
- The party exchanges what they’ve learned over the past session
- The party decides to try and get what information they can from Joshy, then to head to Warehouse B in the Heights
- The party asks if Joshy knows of a “B. Mary” and he says they must
be referring to Bloody Mary, who runs ACE
- When asked about her motivations, he says while most of the people in Arkos are interested mostly in “printing money” without caring for the specifics of their craft, Mary is different
- She does generally care about putting on a show
- She also traditionally will eat dinner with the winners of the Labyrinth of Death, which usually is good for career advancement but might be a good opportunity for information-gathering for the party
- The party asks about criminal activity in the warehouse district of the Heights
- Joshy explains that there isn’t much criminal activity around the
warehouse district because the purpose of the warehouses is explicitly legal
- Arkos-proper and the Heights are taxed separately, and taxes are calculated in part based on trade activity that takes place in each area
- The warehouses are actually small shed-size buildings that don’t store goods as much as provide a location for the actual exchange of goods to occur
- By exchanging goods in the Heights, the residents of that area incur the taxes while the residents of Arkos-proper do not
- The Heights are generally much higher-taxed than the flat areas of Arkos, but the residents of the Heights can’t afford to live anywhere else
- The party says they’re going to the warehouses and will return later for the
Labyrinth of Death
- Joshy looks at the condition of the party and says they might want to heal up with some Wormwood to be prepared for the fight
- Wormwood can make you feel sick immediately after taking it, but that usually wears off in a bit
- It’s a kind of magic parasite
- It also tends to have negative consequences for the following day (failing a roll by 10 or more will make you roll on the Wild Magic table)
- Joshy says he can start preparation of the Wormwood for when the
party gets back
- He gets three jugs of water and mixes a pale powder into them
- On their way out, Joshy calls over a guard wearing a Helions
emblem
- He points out the party and has a friendly conversation with her, and after a bit she walks away
- Joshy tells the party that they should be able to leave now and the guards that are searching for them won’t report them
- Elias asks Joshy if he knows any “L.D.”
- He doesn’t seem to know any that would be of interest to the party or that are related to Bloody Mary in any way
- Heph asks Elias who “L.D.” is and he says he also wants to know and walks away
- On the way to the warehouse district the party drops by Party
City for some disguises/costumes for the Labyrinth of
Death
- Rormir gets Batman costume
- Heph gets a Thor costume
- Elias gets a Mandalorian costume
- The party arrives at the Heights
- They notice that the clean marble architecture of Arkos-proper gives way to more typical stone and wood buildings
- They encounter rows of small “warehouses” which, just as Joshy said, don’t seem to be used to store goods
- There are a decent number of city guards patrolling the area
- Elias and Rormir are wearing the helmets from their
costumes and bumping into stuff
- They can’t see shit
- Heph does notice six individuals in one of the “warehouses”,
seemingly consisting of two groups
- Each group has two guards and one individual who is performing a trade with the non-guard from the other group
- There are papers, bags of coins, and a wooden box involved
- The guards in this business dealing seem to be private guards associated with
each of the traders
- They are wearing chain mail and carrying spears
- The traders are wearing dark brown leathers, standard business attire
- Heph asks Elias to take off his helmet and sneak closer
- Elias manages to get close to the window of the warehouse and
notices a seventh individual in there
- He’s sitting in a chair in the corner and seems to be taking notes
- After the transaction completes the seventh individual stands up and hands each party a stack of papers, retaining a third stack of his own
- A guard approaches Elias and asks what he’s doing, to which he
responds he wants to talk to the man with the papers about scheduling a
transaction
- The guard flags over the man with the papers as they all exit the warehouse and steps back a bit
- The man, looking confused, approaches Elias
- Elias says he wants to schedule a transaction
- The man says that if he wants an official observer such as himself, he should stop by the headquarters with the other trade party present
- He gestures towards a building at the end of the line of warehouses
- Elias mentions that it will be a sensitive transaction and asks
what the man does with all the records
- The man says that if he doesn’t want the transaction recorded, he probably doesn’t want an official observer
- He explains that his role is to take records of all trades which can then be used for tax purposes, or in the event of a dispute between parties
- The records are stored in the headquarters
- He then walks away
- Elias puts his helmet back on and walks immediately into a wall
- The party returns to the Circle and meets up with Joshy
- The Wormwood is ready, and what once were jars of water are now what appear to be jars of white wine
- Joshy notes the party’s costumes and asks if they have names picked out for themselves
- Elias throws away the blaster that came with his costume
- It hits the wall and breaks, emitting a laser burst which breaks the remaining jar of Wormwood
- Joshy explains the rules of the Labyrinth of
Death
- The party will be competing against another team to be the first to get to the center of a maze and claim the prize (400gp, before taxes, and of course dinner with Bloody Mary)
- The maze will contain numerous traps and the center will contain some danger as well
- There will also be potions hidden around to give the competitors an advantage
- Also crowd reaction will interact magically with enchantments in the Circle such that good performances will benefit competitors mechanically
- Joshy mentions that the Labyrinth of Death is designed by Otto, who’s a Minotaur
- A montage begins wherein the party prepares
- Heph creates a hammer which he calls “Mjolnir” which he’ll use to cast Fire Bolt
- Joshy asks what the party is here for, and they explain the
situation with the burglary and trying to figure out who was behind it
- Joshy commends them for seemingly trying to make the world a better place
- Rormir tries to figure out whether the party is allowed to kill
the competition
- Joshy says he’d prefer they didn’t, but that it might get the crowd more engaged, which could be good career-wise
- Rormir points out that there’s some inconsistencies in Joshy’s belief system, that he generally doesn’t want to hurt people and cares about the well-being of the fighters, but also engages in a performance art specifically about harming others
- Joshy doesn’t have a good response to this
- It’s time to compete
- The party heads down a long hallway and hears the cheers of the crowd past an opening at the end of it
- “The Apostles” are announced and loud music begins to emit from somewhere in
the stadium
- The party runs out to a large elliptical expanse of sand surrounded by tiered seating and a roaring crowd
- Heph launches off some Fire Bolts which explode a bit too close to the crowd
- Rormir launches a bat from his Hat of Vermin out of his sleeve and it flies straight into someone’s mouth
- Elias juggles some daggers and gets a much more positive response from the audience than the other two did
- The music quiets down and the announces introduces the Helions
- The announcer welcomes everyone to the Labyrinth of
Death, and stone walls shoot up to fill the previously
empty stadium
- A large maze is now before them
- The party goes in their entrance to the maze while the Helions go in theirs
- They split up to explore multiple options for directions to go
- Elias almost falls into a spike pit
- The party expertly navigates corners, listens for audience reaction to their
choices, and checks for traps
- Joshy seems to be impressed and also struggling to keep up
- Rormir clears the path down one hallway, but Elias fails to follow his exact steps and falls into a spike pit
- Rormir notices a stone slightly out of place in a wall with a
glass bottle behind it
- Elias grabs the bottle, which is clear with a tiny bead of red floating in it
- He asks Joshy what it is after Heph fails to recognize it, and Joshy says it’s a Potion of Growth and that it will double the drinker’s size
- Rormir sees another potion, but can’t quite reach it before
Elias grabs it
- It’s flickering orange and smoke is filling the top of the jar
- Joshy doesn’t know what it is, but Heph recognizes it as a Potion of Fire Breath
- The party encounters a metal door, which Heph attempts to open, electrocuting himself
- Joshy runs up and opens the door
- The party continues on…