Session 50: The Sister (June 6, 2024)
Last session, our heroes ran into Frederick Ehrhalt in Bad Zamdorf, on the run from a group of terrycloth-robed individuals that were chasing him and Thom. After communicating that he was being chased by teletubbies, the party decided to help them both out. They walked around back of the house Frederick and Thom were being chased to and engaged in pitched combat with a number of martial arts masters with elemental abilities.
During the fight, Heph tricked a combatant into thinking the party meant them no harm, Maho kicked a dude into a pool, Elias shrunk a man with a magic arrow, and Frederick practiced killing with unkindness. As the fight drew on, Frederick and Thom were knocked out and began to be carried away. The party managed to defeat the remainder of the assailants, however. Frederick was revived by one who was suddenly infatuated with him after being struck with Cupid’s Little Prick, and the party cleaned up.
Frederick explained that he and Jörnann were in the Grotto trying to dig up her sister Sarnann’s body, as that was the location of her grave. The toughs they fought seemed intent on not letting that information get out, and so chased Frederick and Thom into the morning. Frederick then realized that Thom dying may make room in his body for Jörnann and moved to kill him. Elias stepped in and knocked him out.
The party then headed with their unconscious companions to Sal’s Castle, where Frederick and Thom had been staying. Elias stepped outside out of the bar area and was suddenly grabbed by a gloved hand. The figure said “good to see you brother, we need to talk”.
- Elias asks who the person is, and they respond that
Elias should know, then pulls back his hood
- He has a pointed beard, shaggy brown hair, and deep green eyes, but Elias doesn’t recognize him at all
- The guy thinks he is Jared, and Elias uses Minor Illusion to create a name tag that says Jerias
- The guy seems to reluctantly accept that Elias is not Jared, and he heads into the bar
- Elias hears a voice in his head that says “Hey, Doofus, look around”
- He does, and notices a figure in a cloak in the bar with light blond hair staring at him
- The person says not to approach, but just to acknowledge
- Elias doesn’t recognize this communication as the Message spell, but he tries to reply “CAN YOU HEAR ME” in his head
- The other person seems to wince, and says that Elias doesn’t need to yell
- The person asks how “Ellie” is doing, and Elias starts walking back towards the bar
- The anonymous person is rather upset that Elias left without saying anything, and Elias thought the other person was dead
- Elias walks up to the bar, puts his arm over Heph’s and
Maho’s shoulders, and says “the jig is up, my past caught up to me,
time to go”
- Heph asks if this is related to Ash or the king or the Nor’Southern Isles, and Elias says something like that
- Elias walks over to the table, the person mentally expresses concern and that Elias is bad at this, and Elias out loud says “Hey stranger, can I get a cigarette” and sits down
- Heph and Maho start to head over, and the person quickly rushes out that Kogar and Ash are in town before Heph and Maho can get there
- As Heph and Maho approach, Elias goes quiet
- Heph and Maho join Elias and the stranger at the table
- She adds Heph and Maho to the telepathic link and says Elias is a bad rogue
- Heph does not recognize the spell used
- Elias Mage Hands her beer over and drinks it
- Elias, still telepathically, introduces her as Delilas, his sister
- Delilas explains they’ve been following us since killing the General, and Heph says telepathically it was not Elias
- Maho responds, out loud “that might have been me”
- Heph glances around, but can’t tell if anyone is noticing the odd group silently talking
- Heph points out it’s an odd sight, and suggests they might want to move, but Delilas doesn’t notice anything odd
- Elias looks around, and notices that some people are glancing their way, and the sight of the group is a bit conspicuous
- There are two people at the base of the stairs, one of whom is also periodically glancing the group’s way
- Elias recognizes one of them as Wyn, someone he knew growing up
- Elias asks if Wyn is Delilas’s backup, and she starts to think Elias is maybe not quite so useless
- Elias finally circles around to ask Delilas what she
wants, and she explains she isn’t there for him
- She explains they are probably there for similar reasons, and only became aware of Elias and his companions a few days before
- Delilas assumes Elias is there for Kogar, but Elias reveals that he had no idea Kogar would be here
- Maho finally figures out how to communicate telepathically, but it’s an adjustment and we can somehow hear her breathing too
- With a bit more conversation, it’s still unclear what exactly Delilas is doing in Bad Zamdorf, but we might be on the same side
- Elias is upset she keeps calling him Ellie, so he
Minor Illusions a mustache on her, and she responds by trying to attack him,
but misses
- She throws something at him under the table, which when he looks he doesn’t see anything there
- She explains she is there on important business, trying to interfere with Kogar while he is away from home and potentially assassinate him given the opportunity
- Heph asks if Kogar is there for Hexicon, which she confirms, and Elias pats Heph on the head and says he’s the brain of the operation
- Elias is visibly drunk, and pulls out his 200 year old wine and pours himself more to drink
- Delilas asks why we are there, and Elias says we’re
here for the Zombie King
- Heph explains that he’s not wrong, and Maho gets briefly confused until Heph explains the masked people are zombies
- It turns out Kogar is after the masks, and that is why he is there
- She asks about the goliaths at the bar, and Elias explains we cured them
- Elias asks Heph to show her the mask, and Heph doesn’t want to, Elias tries to pull it out but Heph slaps him away
- The conversation continues, with Delilas realizing that we may have aligned interests
- She is there to take out Kogar if an opportunity presents, but if she does the prince will likely just take over
- Heph asks if there’s any chance of converting Ash, Elias seems like he might want to do it but doesn’t think it’s possible, and is reluctant to go anywhere near it
- Delilas asks about our plan, and Heph explains we’re
winging it a bit, and the next step is to get into Hexicon
- At some point, we fill Delilas in about Thom and Frederick a bit, but that’s not really our main goal
- It turns out we are all overall aligned on stopping the masks from entering the market and anyone getting their hands on them
- Delilas explains that there is a small group of them from the rebellion there
- Elias asks if the person Wyn is talking to is part of the group, but that person isn’t and Wyn is clearly having to work a bit to force the person to stay in the conversation
- Maho asks where Kogar and his gang are staying, and Delilas says it is the Cedar Sash
- Heph sends Karrl out to do some reconnaissance and look for Kogar’s people, including the information from Delilas that they are marching with some banners and a small guard
- She describes the emblem on the banner as similar in style to the emblem on the staff of wood from the carapskit, a harsh mixture of geometric shapes with swirling vines and plant roots, but in the shape of a tree, rather than an anchor, with crystalline fruits sprouting from the branches
- Maho asks is Delilas knows a dwarf by the name of
Harris Kelner, but she doesn’t know
- Maho also asks about ships flying a flag with an emblem similar to what she described, and Elias chimes in and asks where the Isles are right now
- She says they are far East at the moment, they are close to Saraia and Ivalgo
- Learning that they are planning to invade Perrinor, Heph gets upset and is now entirely on board with stopping Kogar
- Elias thinks we should let Kogar invade, because he doesn’t have any magic, but Maho points out he had the hourglass
- Delilas explains that the hourglass is from the Hermit, who is an Arch Fey
- She is excited that we have the hourglass, because it might help her
- Elias asks Delilas if she knows what the agreement was, Aelos had heard of the Hermit wandering nearby, and killed a unicorn and brought the Hermit the horn, and in exchange got the hourglass, and the Hermit explained that the sand represents his life and his life will not pass until the sand does
- Delilas thinks Heph is talking to Elias at one point, and expresses frustration with their parents naming them so similarly, and Elias asks her how their parents are doing
- Delilas says they’re doing okay, but Maho points out Kogar definitely knows who their parents are because Ash knew Elias personally
- Delilas asks Elias more about what he revealed to Ash, and he doesn’t answer directly, but it seems clear that Ash extracted a lot of information from him
- Delilas offers to make a funding or acquisition run, and Heph takes the sheet of paper Elias drew on earlier to write down a list of the ingredients they need
- We have a brief exchange about how different creatures, specifically frogs, are very different between our realms
- The group decides to meet back at Sal’s Castle in the evening to fill each other in on the day
- Elias asks about Aria, and Delilas points him towards it
- As the group leaves, Delilas communicates to just Elias “don’t do anything else stupid”, to which he replies “you never could stop me before could you”
- Pausing for a minute, he adds in that it was good to see her, and she is glad he is alright
- Elias decides to go get his free massage, and convinces
Heph and Maho to go with him
- Heph suggests we get a room first, to set up a base of operations
- In the brochure about the convention, there are various ads for lodging, the cheapest one being a bed and breakfast, called “Tertel’s Little Heavy, <:)3” and breakfast is spelled Berakfist, with the price listed as “1sp ;)”
- Maho approaches the bar to settle the tab, and the goliaths ask if she is done staring at her friends and the stranger, she explains she had a lot to think about, and Suzuki asks if a drink will help
- Maho chugs the beer, and tells the goliaths it’s time to get moving
- Heph tells them he can make their drinks stronger, and they take their drinks to go
- Elias leaves a note for Frederick, “<3 ;) ~ Hef”, and we grab Thom and load up the hearse
- Winding through The Town, we eventually encounter a tall thin building labeled
as Tertel’s, but with different typos than the ad
- Heph approaches the door, ready to knock, and Elias just opens the door and walks in
- Inside it is decorated eclectically, with paintings on the walls of various things, some landscapes, fruits, surreal things, etc., there are doilies on every surface, there are small tables, an upright piano, all just scattered around
- At the far end is a stair case going up, a door next to it, and doors lining the walls
- We hear shuffling from upstairs, and a pitch-perfect Peter Lorre voice calls down “One minute!”
- Elias inspects the paintings, and can swear he sees one of them watching him, but upon further inspection can’t see it, so he starts gluing googly eyes to them
- A tall rail thin man with gaunt features walks down the stairs and asks
Elias to not touch the paintings
- I think something about only being able to eat flesh eyes, after which Elias offers him his iFlask
- We ask for two rooms, and he says he only has one but we’ll find it more than accommodating
- Heph tries to hand over 1 gold, but Tertel insists he needs silver, and Heph hands over 5 silver to cover the fee for a few nights while we attend the conference
- Maho seems a bit freaked out by Tertel, and decides to head out, she drops Thom off inside and then takes off with the goliaths
- Tertel leads Heph and Elias, who are dragging Thom along, upstairs, and leads us to an attic, with a single bed covered in cobwebs and the room is filled with dolls, dusty lamps, locked chests, etc.
- There is one yellowed window at the end of the attic, Elias checks it out and creaks it open and climbs up onto the roof, which is steeply peaked and has a chimney, which has a sweet smell coming out of it
- Drunk Elias thinks the chimney might be edible and licks it, but it tastes like bricks
- Heph Arcane Locks the door, giving himself, Elias and Maho access to it, but no one else
- Elias ties Thom up since we don’t fully trust him, and Heph leaves him a note that says to sit tight until we come back
- Meanwhile, Maho goes back outside and explains the place is too
small
- Maho sees some club-like places near The Promenade, but wanting to stay closer finds a biker bar in The Town called Hell’s Shell, with a bunch of carapskit parked out front eating some lettuce from a trough
- Walking in, the bartender asks what they want to drink, and Maho asks for the strongest drink he has for the goliaths, and says they want to stay 3 or 4 nights
- Heph had previously given Maho a little vial, with a solution to increase the strength of the drinks, to give to the goliaths
- The bartender is happy to have them, and offers to arm wrestle, and Maho absolutely destroys him, and then he offers them the room for 3 silver a night
- Maho buys 2 rooms for 4 nights for 24sp, and gives each of the 3 goliaths 15gp each so they have some spending money
- Maho tells them to enjoy themselves, but be careful because they’re still in enemy territory
- They dump the entire vial of alcohol enhancer into a single glass, and it turns into 300 proof alcohol, which they seem to handle reasonably well
- Back at Tertel’s, Heph and Elias exit the room, and somehow come out a side door on the first floor
- As we head to Aria, Karrl returns, and Heph gets images of a building in Vogue Alley, with all the curtains drawn, but banners hanging from upper windows with the emblem previously described