Perrinor

Session 31 (November 15, 2023)

Last session, our heroes traveled their last day by Dune Skimmer to Wildeport. Heph completed an early prototype of the ranged weapon he had been working on. Elias asked around about Wildeport. He learned from Captain Helga Burt that it was a major military town, containing the base Fort Busch. The populace was generally eccentric and weird in contrast to the seriousness of a military presence. He learned from Pegleg Steve that some of the criminal element in Wildeport operates alongside and in cooperation with the military. He was directed to go to the back of Frau Bino’s Excellent Casino and use the pass phrase “The moon rises in the day but when the butterfly sings fish will eat grass as if they were cows”. He was also given the name “The Swordfish” as a mysterious individual high up in the criminal world.

The Dune Skimmer arrived at the city, and after Elias tried to steal the captain’s spyglass and ran off disguised as “Jemenias” the party passed through the high fortified walls of Wildeport. Elias cast Sleep on Pegleg Steve and stole a vial of “juice” from his pocket. The party then made their way to the Floating Teeth, a not-at-all sketchy establishment in Washside, the poorer agricultural area of town. They entered their unlocked room and discussed ways to secure the door. Rormir left to sleep outside, and Isabella left to find another room.

Heph then took a moment and approached the dirty mirror set over a rickety table in the room. He retrieved his quarterstaff and swung it at the glass, smashing it. But just before the staff hit the surface, he saw something he had never seen before, something that immediately registered as disturbing even though it took a couple seconds for him to fully understand why. Just before the mirror shattered, Heph saw his reflection blink.

• Elias and Heph have a brief conversation about how mirrors are weird
  • Heph reclines into his utility seatbelt to relax and think a bit
  • Elias investigates the broken mirror fragments
  • It is a low quality glass, but Elias notices a delay between when Heph reclines and when the reflection shows it happening
  • Elias and Heph both pocket a mirror fragment
  • Heph and Elias decide to head down to the bar and get drinks
• Heph and Elias head downstairs, but do not see Isabella anywhere
  • Elias is concerned because he wants half-priced drinks (it’s ladies night), and Heph tells him to go talk to some women in the bar
    • Elias says it’s a pity his sister Delilas isn’t there
  • There is a guardswoman sitting at a table with two other guardsmen
  • There is a woman in the corner with a cloak mostly covering her face
  • There are two women engaged in a fistfight with two other women on top of a table
  • Elias checks the room for pigeons, but doesn’t see any
  • Heph checks the room for anyone who stands out, and only notices the woman in the corner with a cloak
• Heph suggests they investigate, and tells Elias that he sorta out of his element and doesn’t really know how to deal with people in a social setting like this
  • Elias tells Heph he’s going to get him a date and leads him over to the lady in the corner
  • Elias starts to make up a story about Heph killing a dragon, Heph is insanely awkward and he plays along and makes up a really hard to believe story about killing a dragon
  • The lady leans forward and asks what Heph’s name is, Heph introduces himself and she thinks he is a halfling with a different name
  • Heph tries to pry into who she is waiting for, she is apparently waiting for four, maybe five, halflings who are supposed to show up, she’s been waiting 2 days
  • Heph, with a little help from Elias, tries to persuade her to let him help find them
  • She is hesitant to trust him, saying The Enemy is always listening, so Heph offers to help her out with something more trivial, and she asks for food
• Heph and Elias head up to the bar and order 3 drinks and 3 meals
  • Elias convinces the bartender that all 3 drinks are for the lady by having her wave to the bartender
  • We get one ale, one beer, and one special sauce (all from the same barrel), and one meat, one slop, and one green
  • He heads into the back and comes back with 3 plates of some sort of food
    • The meat is fairly grayish in color sitting in some sort of pale fluid
    • The slop is what appears to be a thin soup with mashed potatoes floating in it
    • The green is bread with something green growing on it
  • Heph walks back to the bar and pays 21 copper, and with prompting tips 1 more copper
    • 5 copper per meal, 2 per drink at half price
  • Elias and Heph carry the food and drinks back to the table, and Elias sips the beer as they walk over
  • The beer is surprisingly good
  • The cloaked woman grabs the meat, and Heph grabs the slop, Elias leaves the moldy bread on the table
  • Elias turns his cloak black and mimics her posture
• She says she is making a Circle of Fellows, and says we might be welcome to join
  • She is looking for people with no ambition, who wouldn’t be tempted by world-changing magical artifacts and would be okay casting them into a volcano, and Heph pretends he has no ambition
  • Killing the dragon was an accident, and Heph is half a halfling worth of ambition
  • Elias also pretends to have no ambition
  • After eating, she is starting to be a bit more relaxed, and seems to be convinced she could replace 4 to 5 halflings with the two of us
  • She says that things are actually turning out okay, and that everything is coming up Loper
  • She asks Elias his name, and he says it is Mysterias
  • She asks if we can join her Circle, and both answer sure why not
  • She needs a metaphorical offering, phrased like “You have my _____”, so Heph offers his dagger and Elias offers half his crossbow and 3 daggers
    • “And my sword!” she says, drawing a rough-looking old sword partway from her sheath
  • She tells us to rest up and we will meet up with her at the table the next day
    • She looks relieved to be able to get up and go to her room
  • Elias asks if we can delay the trip until after Hexicon, and she agrees because it shows an absolute lack of get-up-and-go
  • She says she’s going to go to bed and rest, she got a discount on a murder room
  • She again calls herself Loper as she heads off
  • The slop was also really tasty, and Heph was Identifying the slop during the conversation
  • It is not magical at all, it is just really tasty
• Heph and Elias talk briefly, and debate whether she is recruiting for Sentin Thornwillow or just trying to find herself some hobbits
  • We head outside looking for Rormir, Elias calling for Rormir and offering him the bread
  • Heph and Elias make a lap around the building and don’t see Rormir anywhere
  • We are at the edge of an orchard, and see a glint next to a tree a bit in the distance in the moonlight
  • Heph follows Elias into the orchard, and Elias explains he is looking at a shiny thing and he likes shiny things
  • Leaning up against the tree is Jarles the sword, the 5 vials of poison, one of which is empty, the ring-turned-pendant that Heph melted, the sending stone from the governor, the porcelain mask that Rormir was carrying, and a scrap of parchment
  • Elias reads the parchment, it says in messy handwriting: “The imbalance I have felt is too strong, I have gone to deal with Sentin as soon as possible. - Rormir”
  • Elias says huh, should we go home? And Heph says why would Rormir go on without his stuff
  • Elias grabs Jarles and asks him what happened to Rormir, Jarles is reluctant to talk but after some threats he decides to divulge some information
    • Nat 20 persuasion man, really good time to have this roll
  • Jarles is sure Rormir will be back, but he just came out to the orchard and wandered around a bit, then he suddenly started acting strange, his body tensed up and then relaxed, and after standing there for a moment he put a bunch of stuff down and took off
  • The woman we have been traveling with was standing a few trees away, the one who really likes Elias, presumably Isabella
  • Heph takes the ring/pendant for investigation, and Elias gets Jarles to point him towards where Isabella was
  • Heph grabs the rest of Rormir’s stuff and hurries after Elias
• Elias sees some scraps of paper at the base of the tree Isabella was near
  • They are burned and it is hard to make out any writing from them
  • There appear to be two types of ink used, one black and one red, but it’s impossible to make out what was written on them
  • Isabella appears to be not what she seemed, and Heph doesn’t actually remember whether he’s ever seen Isabella and Ana at the same time
  • Elias tries to track Isabella, but can’t make out which direction she might have gone
  • Heph sets up the beacon, and sends a message home: “In Wildeport, arrived with minimal incident, ask Morty to contact”
  • Receives a message back from Spraus “Glad you’re safe. I’ve been thinking how to contact you, let me know when you’re on your way to Bad Zamdorf.”
  • Elias gets a message from Morty shortly later, “Hey what’s up”
  • Elias says “Hey Morty, if the cult showed up, ask Barbat to tell me everything he knows about Isabella”
  • Morty “Ah yeah, you sent me a cult, they aren’t here yet but I’ll let you know when they show up”
  • Elias says thanks, and Morty says “No problem, I want to keep you abreast of the piracy situation. Seems there’s some kind of ships of unknown origin waylaying shipments”
  • “We are still trying to figure out where they might be from. They are organized and military, but none we know of. Might be a private militia or something.”
  • Elias asks about banners, and Morty says that they don’t fly any flags, and they have limited reports of the ships from survivors, but the ships are fast and seem expertly built
  • Elias recalls some ships like that that aren’t from around here
  • Morty passes on his love to Heph and says it’s great living with his parents, which Elias passes on as “thanks for letting me sleep with your parents”
• Elias convinces Heph to go with him to check out the casino, Heph agrees and Elias starts to walk off in the direction he thinks the casino is in
  • As he swirls around, the cloak now has two question marks
  • Elias and Heph head back to the bar, where the previous fights have concluded and new fights have started
  • Elias seeks out an individual that looks criminal and approaches her
  • Elias approaches her, she is sitting alone at a table counting a collection of silver and copper, and he asks her where the casino is because she seems to have trouble keeping track of her money
  • She is reluctant to share anything, but Elias sneaks a few silver off the table with mage hand and bribes her with one of her own silver pieces
  • She immediately perks up at the generous offer, and points in a direction and says the casino is that way
  • Elias asks how far, and she says about a half an hour, and it is a big building that stands on its own, with magic lights
  • Elias follows the point as literally as possible and climbs out a window, Heph walks out the front door and meets up with him
  • We make our way through the streets, heading into a denser part of town approaching Station Point
  • While walking, Heph Identifies the ring and finds that it contains the spell Find Familiar and needs attunement
  • Heph then Identifies the bracer from Farley, and learns that it is very very old; Farley said it came from an archeological dig. It has excellent craftsmanship and has intricate lines in perfectly parallel and perpendicular patterns, and it has a magical component although it seems inactive and would require work to repair. It seems like at some point it had the ability to grant certain amounts of control over the magic while casting.
    • Mechanically, it grants the Metamagic Adept feat
  • Heph puts it on and it fits perfectly, and there is some sort of magic lock where it will only function with a specific wielder, and seems reactive to him
    • He remembers that it shocked him when he first touched it, but it didn’t seem to have done that to Farley
  • It strikes Heph that the bracer looks familiar, but he can’t place it at all
  • Elias will spend the whole time trying to bother Heph, but in a way that doesn’t break his concentration
  • As Heph finishes Identifying he realizes that Elias’ finger is in his ear, and he reacts by closing the helm of his armor, and Elias just barely pulls his finger out of the way in time
  • Elias points out the casino in the distance, and Heph responds affirmatively, ignoring the finger incident
• As we approach the casino, we see an elaborate establishment
  • A large sign with glowing magic lights in bright colors spell out “Frau Bino’s Excellent Casino”
    • An image of a woman in a feather boa and a wide-brimmed hat drinking a glass of wine is roughly represented in lights
  • Heph heads towards the front door, but Elias pulls him around the building looking for the back door
  • It’s dirtier and darker around the back, but there is a door with a slit in it
  • Elias does the secret knock, and the slit slides open
  • The eyes ask for the password, and Elias debates whether it is a password or passphrase
  • Elias tries to pretend he is important and that the bouncer should know who he is, the slit slides shut and there is paper shuffling inside
  • He isn’t on the papers, but Elias claims he’s important and doesn’t need to be listed
  • He demands the password/phrase again, and Elias Misty Steps into the room behind the guy, claiming that he doesn’t need the password if he’s already inside
  • The guy opens the slit, and he sees Elias disappear into a mist, and he turns around and Elias waves at him from a chair
  • He thinks he is seeing a ghost, and heads towards Elias
  • At the table Elias is sitting at, there’s a portly man in a uniform, seems to be a high-ranking military official
  • He seems surprised to see Elias, and asks “What is the meaning of this?”
  • The doorman approaches and says “He’s not on any list and wouldn’t give me the pass and disappeared and now he’s here”
  • Elias uses Mage Hand to open the door, which swings open, but they notice Elias doing this
  • The portly man and the doorman go to grab Elias and throw him out, saying he can’t be in there without the passphrase
  • As they lead Elias towards the door, he casually states the passphrase, but they still throw him out and slam the door behind
  • Heph asks if he knows the password, and Elias says yes, Heph is confused why he didn’t just give the password
  • Elias tries to talk the guy into letting him in, but he slams the slit shut again
  • Elias knocks one more time, and the guy immediately tries to slam the slit shut, but Elias casts Charm Person before he shuts it all the way
  • In reaction to this, the guy welcomes him back, but asks for the password again
  • Elias gives the passphrase, and the guys opens the door and welcomes Elias in
  • Heph also gives the passphrase, and he lets Heph in as well
• He proceeds to give introductions of everyone inside
  • He is Lieutenant (leftenant) Horatio Gust-Billet, the quartermaster at Fort Busch
  • The portly gentleman, who has already started to head over, and he introduces him as General Angst Störung
  • The general demands to know what is going on, but the quartermaster vouches for both Elias and Heph, and the general sighs and says he welcomes new faces, but it’s on the bouncer’s head if he causes any problems
  • The general sits back down and resumes smoking his cigar
  • He introduces the waiter as Private, the bartender is Bilbo, and the person sitting at the bar is Dan Klein
  • Dan is a member of the “community”
  • He tells us to make ourselves at home and heads back to the door
  • He doesn’t know who is in charge, a lot of the details are kept on the DL

Referenced in

• Calendar