Session 32 (November 29, 2023)
Last session, our heroes prepared for late-night activities in Wildeport. After both Heph and Elias noticed some weirdness with the mirror in their room, they pocketed shards of the broken glass and headed downstairs to the bar. There they approached a mysterious hooded woman at a table in the corner, Elias planning on getting Heph a date and, perhaps more practically, earning half-price on drinks for ladies night (Elias’s sister “Delilas” not being present, of course). The woman, who introduced herself as “Loper”, seemed to have been waiting for a group of four to five low-ambition halflings for a couple days. After offering her food and some drinks using her discount, Heph and Elias managed to convince her that they weren’t agents of “The Enemy”, and that they might be sufficiently lacking in the desire for self-advancement to join her “Circle of Fellows”. Satisfied that they could replace the halflings, she went to her room for some rest, telling them to catch her literally whenever they were ready for the quest.
The two then went outside to search for Rormir. They didn’t see him anywhere, but did find some of his belongings sitting at the base of a tree in a nearby orchard. Among the items they found was a note on parchment in messy handwriting reading: “The imbalance I have felt is too strong, I have gone to deal with Sentin as soon as possible. - Rormir”. They also managed to convince Jarles to tell them what happened. He said Rormir came out to the orchard, then suddenly stiffened, laid some belongings by the tree, and ran off. He also said the woman the party had been traveling with (the one really into Elias) was nearby and had walked away afterwards. By another tree where the woman had stood, they found burned scraps of paper with now-illegible writing in black and red ink.
The duo talked with their contacts briefly, Spraus asking Heph to tell him when they were on their way to Bad Zamdorf from Wildeport, and Mort telling Elias that the ships attacking the smuggling shipments were organized and expertly crafted, like some unknown naval fleet. They then headed to Frau Bino’s Excellent Casino. Elias approached the back door, and despite knowing the password to the secret meeting room Misty Stepped his way in. After being thrown out, he charmed the doorman and he and Heph entered. We rejoin them after being introduced to the other individuals in the room.
- General Angst Störung finishes his whiskey, stands up, and heads for a door to
the left of the bar
- Elias sees this and waves over the doorman Horatio to ask him where the general is going
- Horatio says he has a meeting, and Elias asks him to go figure out if it’s an important meeting
- Horatio flags down the general, who isn’t happy to be interrupted, and Horatio doesn’t really figure out much about the meeting
- Elias prevents the door from closing using Mage Hand
- Heph isn’t super stealthy, and convinces Elias to go first through the door
- Elias peeks through the door, and sees a sterile-looking dimly lit hallway
- There are 3 doors on each side of the hallway, and the general approaches the second door on the right, knocks and enters without waiting
- Elias enters the door, and makes a bird call to get Heph’s attention
- Heph follows Elias through the door and into the
hallway
- Before closing the door, Elias calls over Horatio and gets him to follow us
- Elias sees another individual peeking around the corner
- She is tall and imposing, in heavy armor, styled like samurai armor
- Heph and Horatio don’t see her
- Elias pretends he hasn’t seen her and peeks through the keyhole
of the first door on the left
- He sees a couple desks with some paper on them, chairs, and some bookshelves
- Maho starts sauntering down the hallway, and makes a show of peering into the second door on the left
- She looks extremely out of place while doing this
- Heph casts Message to tell her he likes her armor, after making eye contact she figures out it’s him
- She responds out loud, saying that she likes Heph’s drip and that she’ll see him at the bar
- Maho hears voices conversing, one of whom sounds very familiar, and they react to her speaking out loud from the second door on the left
- Someone appears to be approaching the door
- Heph notices that there is movement in the room, and whispers to
Elias that they should get out of there because Maho
was noticed
- Elias jiggles the doorknob of the door he was in front of, but it is locked
- Heph, Elias, and Horatio follow Maho out of the hallway, and she slams the door shut
- Maho and Elias lean up against the door to listen to it
- The general, not seeing anyone, heads back into the room to continue the meeting
- Dan Klein is passed out at the bar, and Bilbo the bartender is watching us
- Maho asks what Bilbo is looking at, and he whistles a tune and looks away
- Horatio doesn’t have keys for the door
- Heph tries to pick the lock to the hallway door to help out, but is unable to do it
- The bartender is watching this happen
- Heph asks him if he has keys, and he asks if Heph wants a drink
- Heph gives up and goes to get a drink and orders an ale for 5
silver
- He also bribes Bilbo 1 gold and 3 silver (I think?) to not talk about what he’s witnessing
- Elias also fails at picking the lock, and gives up and uses Mage Hand to open the door from the other side
- Heph downs his drink and walks back over to the group
- Maho leads the way back into the hallway
- Maho tries opening the first door on the left, then the first on the right
- Meanwhile Elias is saying, “no, the second door on the left” out loud and there is movement in the second room on the left
- Elias picks the lock on the first door on the left, just as the second door begins to open
- Elias pushes Horatio away, Maho tries to push Heph into the room, and the person coming out of the second room just sees the tail end of us going into the room
- We see the face of a man Maho hasn’t seen before (the general), in well-taken care of armor wearing some medals
- He asks Horatio what he is doing there, and he says he is keeping an eye out and gets yelled at to go back to the door, which he does
- Maho heads over to the north wall to try to listen through it, but
it’s a stone wall and she can’t hear much
- Heph looks for a crack or vent in the wall, and finds a deep crack in the wall that seems like it might go through to the next room
- Heph hears a conversation between two individuals, the general and another voice Heph doesn’t recognize
- The general is explaining there is just some activity in the hallway, and Horatio had left his post and had to be sent back to the his post
- He noted that he saw a woman with a mask, and the other guy seems intrigued, but doesn’t inquire much further
- Maho takes the mask off, and Elias asks if she knows the person that is being referred to in the other room
- While Heph is listening, Elias is inspecting the desks
- There are no personal effects, but there are a bunch of clerical items, spreadsheets, accounting documents, detailing the business of the casino, etc.
- Elias makes some additional notations on the papers, just to create a bit of chaos
- Ben rolls a 2 on a luck die to see what effect those alterations have on the casino
- Heph hears the conversation continue in the next room, where the
conversation turns back to normal business
- The other man references the agreed amount, and the general says yes let’s count it, and Heph hears a heavy thump and clinking of metal
- There is a methodical thumping as they lay items down on the table
- Maho asks if they referenced Thornwillow or Dynastic, Heph and Elias are intrigued because these words have meaning to them
- Maho explains that she is trying to find Sentin Thornwillow before her boss does
- Heph, continuing to listen, hears that the general has just received funds from Sentin Thornwillow as he was passing through the city, and the other voice seems satisfied with that
- Heph pops out and asks Maho why she’s interested in Sentin, and she seems to want to confront him
- Heph explains a bit about how Sentin is a bad dude, and Maho introduces herself and says we can probably work together
- Heph gets back to the crack and hears the counting and conversation conclude, the unknown guy is lamenting the fact that he hasn’t met Sentin while he was passing through
- The general wraps up the meeting and wishes the man the best, and says he’ll send someone to collect the next installment when it’s due
- Heph tells Maho she better get back to her post quickly, since they are wrapping up the meeting
- Maho heads out rapidly and heads back to the northern door to head back out into the main casino floor
- The guards seem a bit confused, since Maho is no longer wearing the mask, but recognize her and let her pass without incident
- Heph hears the men leave the room and hears the footsteps leave in
separate directions
- Elias peers out the keyhole and sees the general walk past
- He does not appear to be carrying anything additional to what he was before
- Heph and Elias approach the door, and Elias peers through the keyhole
- There is a single desk with some papers on it, and some shelves and potted plants
- It takes some time, but Elias manages to unlock the door and we slip into the room
- Elias tries to jump up onto the desk and start investigating the papers
- He trips over the desk and falls on his face on the other side, scattering the papers, a book and a pot of ink everywhere
- It’s difficult to make out details on the pages after the ink spilled on them, but there seem to be some spreadsheets, and the book seems to be a military history of some sort, titled “Lost Wars of the Desert”, and some paper that appears to be prose
- Elias tries to clean up the paper with Prestidigitation, but is removing all of the fresh ink as well as the spilled ink due to a low arcana roll
- Heph checks the drawers of the desk, and finds paper and ink and erasers
- The third drawer is locked, but Heph pulls out his Thieves’ Tools and deftly unlocks it
- As he opens it, he notices some sort of spell go off, but he’s not sure what exactly it was
- There is a leather pouch and a nice lacquered wooden box
- Heph pockets the pouch, hands Elias the box, and says
it’s time to leave
- Elias doesn’t notice that the pouch contains a decent amount of gold
- Elias says he’ll cover our tracks, and starts lighting things on fire
- Heph helps, and within 45 seconds have about half the paper in the room on fire
- Elias and Heph start to head out of the room, and Elias checks the hallway to see if it’s clear, and hears the guards approaching, and pops back inside
- Elsewhere while this is all happening, Maho looks for another tall
person and attempts to give them her mask
- She spots a table with a man doing badly at gambling, and tries to subtly drop the mask off next to him
- He spots her, and asks how much it is worth
- Maho doesn’t remember, but he takes it and immediately attempts
to bid it as 3 gold
- Maho grumbles that it’s worth 10
- She heads back to where Daro Mandel, the man who met the general and who she was escorting from Eken to Wildeport, expects to meet her
- He meets up with her, patting something in his pocket, and asks about the mask, she says she lost it
- She pretends to have tried to gamble, it didn’t go well, and she lost the mask in a game
- He doesn’t buy the story, and seems to know she was trying to spy, and he asks her what she heard
- Maho says she heard nothing, and he asks why she followed him in
- She says she wanted to meet the man with shiny armor
- Mandel thinks she is getting a bit too curious about affairs she is not paid to be curious about, and she wanted to know his business, and he thinks she is trying to rise above her station
- Mandel orders her to accompany him back to talk to Tyvus, because she is getting too curious for her own good
- Maho looks around, and sees one guy throwing up against the outside wall of the casino, and she says that she can’t leave right now
- She throws a rock at Mandel, knocking him off his feet, and he looks at her surprised
- Maho grapples him to the ground, and he is trying to talk his way out of it, but Maho is covering his mouth
- She says we can’t leave now, and he can’t go back to Tyvus, and he is unable to break out of the grapple
- She starts punching him, and he passes out after a couple of hits
- She slings him over her shoulder
- Meanwhile, back in the casino
- Heph searches the exterior wall for weak points, but doesn’t spot any
- Elias looks to see if he can lock the door, but not having the key there isn’t any obvious way to do so
- Elias uses Mage Hand to try to prevent the door knob from turning while Heph casts Shatter on the outside wall
- He severely damages the wall; the door opens, revealing 5 guards