Session 33 (December 7, 2023)
Last session, our heroes followed General Angst Störung into a back hallway of Frau Bino’s Excellent Casino, hearing he had an important meeting. They entered just as he disappeared through the second door on the left. They were not alone in the hallway, however. On the opposite end, peering obviously around the corner was a tall woman in heavy, samurai-style armor. A brief back-and-forth ensued caused by the party making noise in the hallway, then attempting to hide as the General came out twice to investigate. During this time the woman introduced herself as Maho; the party hid back in the back room and were watched intently by the bartender Bilbo as they tried to pick the lock to get back into the hallway; and the party hid in another room off the hallway as the General emerged again, but not before clocking Maho as she passed through the doorway.
Heph then set about listening to the conversation happening in the adjacent room through a crack in the wall, relaying any information to the other two with the use of Message. The General seemed to be meeting with Daro Mandel, an individual Maho had accompanied to Wildeport. Heph heard them counting out coins, and mentioning that Sentin Thornwillow had just dropped off his share of the payment as he recently passed through Wildeport. Maho showed interest in Sentin, putting Heph and Elias briefly on edge until she explained that she didn’t work for him, and was hoping to confront him.
The meeting over, Maho rushed back to the outside of the casino where Mandel was expecting her to be waiting. Heph and Elias snuck into the room, where Elias made a huge mess of paper and ink and Heph set off an alarm in a desk drawer before clearing out the contents. Panicked, they spent 45 seconds setting various things in the room on fire, and upon attempting to leave through the hallway, heard guards approaching.
Maho meanwhile met up with Mandel, who suspected she was inside spying on him. Failing to convince him otherwise, and faced with his command to accompany him back to Eken and Tyvus immediately, Maho knocked him out and put his limp body over her shoulder. She then heard a loud noise from around the corner as Heph attempted to use Shatter to break through the wall and escape the predicament the party found itself in.
- Maho pokes her head around the corner, but doesn’t have a good
sense of where the commotion is coming from in the building
- Heph uses catapult to destroy a section of the wall and starts to run away
- Guard #1 comes through the door, is able to adjust to the fire and smoke in the room, tries and fails to grab Elias
- Maho dashes towards the fire, trying to make sure nobody is caught inside
- Heph tries to persuade her to leave it, but she is determined to help
- Guard #5 enters the room, flanks Elias, and stabs at him with his spear
- Elias disengages and runs away from the guards, casting Wind Wall using the amulet as he does, knocking guard #5 out and hurting #1
- Guard #3 cautiously enters the room, approaches Elias and stabs him with his spear, seeming very nervous as he does so
- Elias drops concentration and the Wind Wall drops, and #3 takes damage from the smoke
- Guard #2 runs into the room, stabs at Elias, but Maho redirects the damage to herself, and then #2 takes damage from the smoke
- Guard #4 enters the room, tries to leap up onto a shelf, but face plants on the shelf, gets burnt, and misses his stab, and then choking on smoke
- The general appears from around the corner, heading out from the door we
originally entered
- Heph launches a Fire Bolt at the general and keeps running away
- It hits him in the shoulder but doesn’t slow him down
- Guard #1, looking at the guards and the fire, decides to throw his spear instead of approaching any closer, but misses, and moves in to backup #2, #3 and #4
- Maho runs into the fire, still carrying Mandel, and taps another
rune growing to a giant size as she enters
- She takes some fire damage as she moves into the fire’s space
- She says to everyone that they need to get out, grabs Elias and slings him over her shoulder, and carries him back out of the building
- The general continues towards the party, and sees someone he vaguely recognizes carrying Mandel who he does recognize, and Maho tells him there are more people inside that he should help out
- He orders her to stop right there until a full investigation can be conducted, and pulls out a crossbow and fires at Heph, but narrowly misses (Heph had half cover behind a tree and thus AC 22, the general rolled a 21 to attack), and Heph sticks out his tongue at the general
- Maho lets Elias down, who decides to bolt straight north away from the general, fire, etc.
- Guard #3 dashes over to Maho, getting right up in her face
- Guard #2 does the same, as does Guard #4
- Heph launches a Fire Bolt at the general and keeps running away
- Heph runs away in the same direction as Elias, and
fires a Fire Bolt at the general, but missing badly it ignites a tree on fire
- Guard #1 grabs #5 and drags him out of the room back into the hallway
- Maho shoves #3 and #4 away from her, and runs away from #2, who isn’t able to land a stab
- The general orders everyone to stand down and allow themselves to be
arrested
- If they leave the lot behind the Casino, it will be a military matter and they can no longer expect a trial
- Elias runs out from cover, and casts sleep, targeting the 3 remaining guards, but it seems to not have any effect, then runs back to his hiding spot
- #3 runs up to Maho, stabbing at her, and #2 and #4 run up to her, yelling for everyone to stop and surrender
- Heph runs behind the building, hitting the guards with Magic
Missiles as he goes
- Maho drops Mandel on the ground, pulls out a maul, and attacks the general, activating her fire rune and tripping him to a prone position
- She smacks him again with a golf swing, killing him and knocking his dead body back 10 feet
- She glares at the other guards, converting a message of back off or you’ll get it too, and as she backs away they do not make any move against her
- Elias tries to hide, but isn’t able to, and just runs away, continuing north
- Guard #3 stands in shock, and #2 and #4 move to the general
- Heph heads after Elias, trying to put some distance
between himself and the guards
- Maho follows in the same direction, ending combat
- Elias flips his cloak around to a black cloak, to hide in the night
- The party is heading towards the inn, thinking that’s their best bet for getting out
- Heph starts analyzing the situation as they head there, and realizes that the general is probably dead, and the guards got a good look at Elias, but maybe less clear on himself, but they almost certainly will remember Maho
- Back at the inn, we head back into our tiny room
- The innkeeper notices that the party is bloodied, but doesn’t seem to care all that much
- Elias cuts open the pillow, which is stuffed with white and light gray human hair, and fashions it into a beard, and flips his cloak to a worn and tattered looking tan color, transforming himself into Mr. Pippinpadolopsocopolias the 3rd
- Heph suggests Elias opens the box, and Elias picks the lock effortlessly
- There is a folded sheet of paper, Heph takes it and unfolds it, and it is blank
- There’s no magic affecting it, but invisible ink exists
- Heph holds it over the lamp in the room to try to heat it up and activate the invisible ink that must be there
- The page starts to fill in with writing and shapes, but some sort of reagent is needed to make the writing fully visible
- Maho touches the paper, feeling for grooves from the pen, but does not feel any depressions on the surface
- Heph asks everyone to sit tight while he conjures up some alchemical supplies, but Elias is pretty insistent that we need to get out of town immediately
- Maho is thinking she wants to drop off Mandel in a way such that he won’t go back to her boss immediately
- We all search Mandel, looking to see if he has any way to contact Maho’s boss
- Heph pulls out a sack jingling with coins, and Elias pulls out a sending stone
- Heph tries to pocket the bag of coins, Elias tries to pull it away, but Heph manages to hang on to it
- Heph can tell that Mandel is waking up soon (he can tell in around half an hour on a nat 20), and we need to figure out how to get rid of him
- Elias looks out the window, to see if he can see any pigeons, but doesn’t see any
- Heph tries to cut off his hair, and makes a mess of it, and Elias uses the disguise kit to give him makeup
- Heph and Elias carry Mandel to the nice part of the city, and force feed him the vial of liquid
- Heph and Elias head back to the inn, and let
Maho know that things went pretty well
- Heph convinces Maho to call her boss and let him know that things went south, the general is down, and Mandel is missing
- She relays that message (well, mostly, she used up the 25 words fairly early), and TK responds with a clarifying question
- Heph and Elias briefly discuss, and decide they need to try to get on a boat and get out of town before the military locks anything down
- The three of them work together to try to disguise Maho a bit
- Maho ends up with Mandel’s cloak as a scarf (oh Mandel is fully naked), the bed sheet as a cloak, and the pillowcase as a hat
- The party heads out through the window, and heads to the docks
- There is a larger guard presence near the Casino, but there don’t appear to be any heavier patrols heading towards the docks
- There are guards standing around the moored ships in the docks, walking between the ships and talking to the captains
- Elias and Heph notice a Kenku, Peg-Leg Steve, hiding not that far away
- With Steve is another individual, a halfling that we remember manning the crow’s nest from the trips to and from Arkos
- Elias sneaks up next to Steve and the halfling and says “so what are we looking at?”
- They both immediately jump and are startled, and cover the mouth/beak with their hands
- Elias pulls down the beard and says “don’t worry guys, it’s me, wink”
- Steve looks at the guards, reaches his hand into his pocket, and asks Elias “are you up to have some fun?”