Session 39 (February 6, 2024)
Last session, our heroes had a spontaneous meetup with Mort and Spraus in Tap That Glass. Spraus and Heph had their long due conversation on Spraus’s involvement in some illicit trading. Some years previously when Potion Pitstop was struggling, Spraus got involved in smuggling to better supply the shop. This inadvertently lead him into a compromising position, where Governor Literi gathered blackmail on him and determined he was the perfect target for a demonstration of the Lucien Blinds. Elias talked with Mort, learning more information about the ships that had been disrupting smuggling traffic in the Shivered Sea. He recognized the description of a symbol carved into their hulls, and instructed Mort to approach one of the ship, offering trade and the services of his smuggling organization.
The conversations concluded, Mort left to treat Spraus to a “vacation” around Eken and the party headed north to see TK. On the way Elias stopped to buy an absurd number of sweet ecke pastries, most of which he threw up. They also stopped by The Widow Seer, a magic shop that Maho thought the arcane of the party would enjoy a visit to. There they bought a Pearl of Power, a Deck of Illusions, and three health potions from the macabre proprietor in exchange for some gold and also multiple sources of Elias’s life essence. During the transaction, the proprietor’s eyes grew white and her voice changed, delivering to Elias the prophesy “A phantom from your past, you have seen her before, and you will see her again”. She then returned to normal and indicated no memory of the event. She also looked long and hard at Maho, saying she “saw her mother in her”, and gifted Maho a crystal ball which had belonged to the Widow Seer herself.
The shopping completed, the party approached Sender Manor, home and power center of the infamous TK. Maho was recognized by the guards and they were let in and lead through the massive lavish mansion to TK’s relatively plain office. After tense greetings were exchanged, TK said Maho had gotten involved faster than he anticipated, and he wasn’t entirely displeased.
- Maho responds, “what the hell is that supposed to mean?”
- TK is smiling, not a real smile, but Maho is unable to read him
- He asks her to tell him what happened from her point of view
- Heph looks around the room, and passes a message to Maho telling her to “keep it simple, no lies, like we did on the sending stones”
- TK notices this but doesn’t say anything
- Maho says she accompanied Mandel to Wildeport, after the exchange there was a fire, she rescued us, and the army was upon us
- Mandel had been knocked out, she killed the general, and now she is here
- TK probes for more information, but Maho sticks with this simple version of the story
- He asks if she was seen, she asks when, and TK asks throughout the whole thing
- She was seen with Mandel when they checked into the casino
- Maho remembers the drunk guy outside the casino, but says nobody else saw them together
- With the help of her cloud rune, it seems that she has managed to convince
him of the lie
- A nat 20, I think
- If only the guards saw Maho and Mandel together, there is probably nothing to tie Maho back to him
- TK informs her she is fired, presently and retroactively
- There can be no indication she used to work for him
- Her killing the general makes his job a lot more difficult, and he can’t have that
- Heph jumps in to explain that Elias and he created the
fire / explosion
- He continues to try to convince TK that Maho got lumped in with them after they blew a hole in the wall of the casino
- Elias explains that we hadn’t seen Mandel
- TK has been reading up on our group, and Heph and Elias go down a brief tangent about the ACE and Bloody Mary
- TK has decided not to kill us, even though he claims it would be in his right to do so
- Maho will no longer be paid by him, and neither will her father
- Heph tells him we didn’t mean to run afoul of his plans, and to let us know if we can ever be of use to him
- Elias turns to Maho and asks if she wants to come to Hexicon with us, she doesn’t immediately answer and Elias pokes her in the face with Mage Hand
- Maho asks TK about the Lucien
Blinds, and he smiles and asks what she already knows
- Maho knows about the deals with Sentin, but fails persuasion, and TK explains he maintains a diversified portfolio as part of running his business
- He is involved in many things simply to ensure the success of his business
- Maho says “well you’ve got a shit business” and TK responds with “I think I’m doing fairly well” after looking around to note the large house
- Elias asks if he wants to get involved in his operation, as part of diversification
- TK knows about Elias’ issues, but Elias tells him it is being handled
- TK asks if he has any paperwork, Elias tells him that’s not how he does things, and his people will reach out
- TK tells him to bring a proposal and he will decide whether to join up or crush Elias’ business and take it over
- TK turns back to Maho, tells her she needs to move out of her house by the end of the day, and her dad will no longer have his protection
- Maho turns to leave the room, Heph lags a bit behind,
waves to TK as he leaves the room, and follows
Maho out of the building
- Heph asks Karrl to stay behind for a bit and observe what is going on after our departure
- We rush back to Tap That Glass, but on the way Heph asks Elias about the prophecy, and if he thinks it’s referring to Ash
- Elias seems a bit shaken by that thought, and shakes it off and seems to prefer to pretend that is no longer the case
- Getting back to Tap That Glass, Maho heads straight for the basement
- Barth is working, and the guards are still present in the basement
- Barth asks how it went, and Maho explains she was fired, but still alive
- Maho’s dad pokes his head out of an empty barrel, and Maho explains TK wants to cut ties with Maho, meaning that they’re gonna get kicked out of the house
- The guards note that Maho is fired, but don’t seem to immediately react to it
- While Maho is working through the next steps, the crystal ball she got starts the glow
- Pulling it out, the light is blinding to everyone else, but Maho is able to see super clearly
- The crystal ball is warm, and she can see clearly a whole world inside the ball, where a massive building with tanish-grayish stone pillars and a sign saying “Museum Arcanum”
- She feels an older feminine presence beside her, but not one that she can see
- The presence is protective, caring, and a bit sad